The Marquette Redmen Baseball Team (5) and the Kingsford Flivers (3) Face Off in Second Meeting of Season on Fox Sports Marquette 105.1 & 99.9FM

Marquette, MI – May 13th, 2019 – It was finally feeling like spring when the Marquette Redmen and the Kingsford Flivers met on the baseball field. Marquette was coming off of a nice win over the Miners, but the Flivers had their eyes set on revenge from their first meeting of the year where Marquette took the win.

The very first batter in the game, Kingsford’s Connor Erickson, singled to the short outfield grass, and that started off a huge run for the Flivers. The first five batters for Kingsford all had singles during their first at bats, and that allowed them to break out to an early 2-0 lead with only one out. Blake Henrickson was on the mound for the Marquette Redmen, and he threaded the needle to strike out the second out of the inning. Henrickson seemed shaken and allowed a third run to score after a wild pitch to make the game 3-0. However, he regained his composure, and nailed the catcher’s mitt to strike out the final out of the side.

Luke G. and Tyler Y. in the announcer’s booth

When it was Marquette’s first turn at bat, Kennan Johnson led off the side with a blazing single, followed by a run for the Redmen, facilitated by a few errors from Kingsford. There were runners at first and second, and Blake Henrickson belted an RBI single to the outfield for the Redmen’s first run of the game. More fielding errors on the side of Kingsford allowed Marquette to tie the game up at 3-3 with nobody out. A lucky hop on a ground ball gave the Redmen the opening to take their first lead of the game with a score of 4-3. An error on Kingsford’s first baseman gave Brendan Kaski a single, and at that point, the Flivers decided to change pitchers. Carter Kreski, Kingsford’s third baseman, made back to back outs by tagging third base after fielding a ball to get the force out and keep runners out of scoring position. Kingsford managed to get the next batter out, and the Redmen had the lead at 4-3 when the first inning ended.

Blake Henrickson fielded a smoked ground ball back at the mound and got the first out of the second inning on the force at first. It was a very quick top of the second inning as Kingsford managed to strand one base-runner before two quick outs from the Redmen defense. Once again, it was time for Kingsford to take the field with Ben Stanish still on the mound, but three quick outs ended the second inning. A beautiful strike out started off the top of the third inning for the Marquette Redmen’s Blake Henricksen, however a walk to Ben Stanish put a man on first base with only one out. C. Kreski stuck out for the second time of the game to give Marquette two outs with a runner on first base. Marquette’s Blake Henricksen stuck out his sixth batter of the game to end the Flivers’ chances for scoring in the third inning.

The Marquette Redmen’s Jake Peterson led off the bottom of the third, and he gave them their first base runner since the first inning. Two past balls from Kingsford’s catcher gave Peterson openings to advance to third base and into direct scoring position. A big cut off steal play gave the Flivers their second out of the inning when Marquette attempted to steal second base and home but were caught at home plate. A force out at first base on a hard hit ground ball brought an end to the third inning.

The Marquette Redmen had a fantastic game Monday night

The game had slowed down considerably, with no runs being scored since the first inning, and Blake Henricksen K’d his seventh batter of the game to start the fourth. Colin Erickson went deep in the pitch count, but was able to squeeze out a walk to put a man on first for Kingsford. Erickson stole second base on a very close play, but Henricksen put down his eight K of the game for the second out of the inning with one on second base. The final out of the inning was recorded when Henricksen stuck out the fourth batter of the inning, bringing his strike out total to nine in four innings. As the bottom of the fourth rolled around, the Marquette Redmen led by a single run, but they gave up two quick pop-flys for two fast outs. Erik Johnson made it to first base on a full-count walk, after showing great restraint on a pitch that was close to a strike. Peter VandenAvond was hit by a pitch, moving the lead runner to second base and putting him into scoring position. Blake Henricksen was doing well on both sides of the plate, and he drove a single up the middle of the field to bring Johnson home for Marquette’s fifth run of the game. Jakob Peterson got onto first base to load all the bases with two outs, but a great pitch forced an infield ground ball to the second baseman for the final out of the inning.

Kingsford was down to six outs left in the game to make a comeback, but the Marquette Redmen seemed determined to not let that happen. Eyn Nye put the first batter of the game down when he stepped away from first base to catch a pop-up ball and bring the Flivers down to five out remaining. Peter VandenAvond sprinted across the field to snag another pop-up with a fantastic catch, and Kingsford’s side of the inning ended when they flew another ball to the Redmen defense. Nick Plourde made onto the first base bag for his first hit of the game on a beautiful single to start the bottom of the fifth. Kingsford’s Nick Povolo made an amazing diving catch and managed to pick off Plourde after not tagging up at first base after what seemed like a sure hit to end the fifth inning.

There were only three outs standing between the Marquette Redmen and a win over the Kingsford Flivers. Marquette decided to bring in Jake Allard-Soucey to take the mound as Blake Henricksen neared almost 100 pitches on the night. Things looked grim for the Flivers with the bottom of the order set to start the inning, and Peterson made a great throw from third base on a ground ball for the first out of the inning. An easy pop-fly put two outs away for Marquette, and Allard-Soucey was dealing strike after strike, doing an amazing job from coming in from the bullpen. Another ground out was hit to third base, and that was the last out needed for the Redmen to take home the win 5-3.

Listen LIVE – The Marquette Redmen Baseball team faces the Kingsford Fliver on the home field on Monday, May 13th, 2019 on Fox Sports Marquette 105.1 & 99.9FM.mp3