CHICAGO, Ill. – North Park Baseball hammered out a season high four home runs and five doubles in an 15-8 win over the Dominican University Stars on Tuesday afternoon. Three different Vikings had 3-for days while junior pitcher Samuel Jackson picked up his first win of the season.
The Stars plated the first two runs on the game on an RBI single from CJ Kalekas and an unconventional sac fly to the infield in the second inning.
North Park got those two runs back in the bottom of the third inning when junior third baseman Rylan Kawakami doubled home junior right fielder Joe Perona before senior center fielder Alex DiVito returned the favor with an RBI single up the middle, scoring Kawakami.
However, the Stars tallied four runs on four hits in the fourth inning, pulling ahead 6-2.
Senior left fielder Nate Sommerfeld got North Park going in the bottom of the fourth with a ground-rule double to left and moved up on a groundout. Next, freshman first baseman Enzo Vertucci plated Sommerfeld on an RBI single, continuing a trend of six-straight run-scoring innings for North Park.
Not only did the Vikings score in every inning the rest of the way, four different NPU hitters left the yard. Sophomore catcher Reyn Matsuzaki cracked a three-run shot to center in the fifth, his third of the season, Perona drove a three-run, go-ahead shot to right in the sixth, Kawakami smacked the Vikings' first grand slam of the season in the seventh, and senior shortstop Reece Arakaki's two-run homer to right-center in the eighth marked the first one of his collegiate career. North Park had the game in hand, 15-6.
On the mound, Jackson picked up the win, scattering three hits and three earned in his 4.2 innings pitched with six punchouts.
Perona, DiVito, and Vertucci all had three hits while Kawakami drove in five runners. Perona scored four times as NPU totaled nine extra-base hits.
What's Next?
North Park (4-11) makes the short trip to River Forest for a game against Concordia on March 24. First pitch is set for 3:00 PM CT.
