BOLIVAR, Mo. – Noah Burgh's (Warsaw, Ind./Warsaw Community High School) brilliant pitching performance and a four-run fourth inning keyed the Purdue Northwest baseball team to a 5-0 win in the nightcap of a doubleheader split with Southwest Baptist on Friday. The host Bearcats won the first game of the doubleheader by a 7-4 margin in the season opener for the Pride.
Burgh, who made his first career start after six relief appearances as a freshman, tossed six shutout innings for his first collegiate win. The sophomore right-hander struck out six and surrendered just two hits and a pair of walks.
PNW (1-1) got on the board in the second game when
Anthony Fumagalli (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North High School) sent a one-out, bases-loaded single into right field to plate
Ray Hilbrich (Schererville, Ind./Lake Central) in the fourth. The Pride then extended their lead to 3-0 two batters later with
Luke Montgomery's (Orland Park, Ill./St. Laurence High School) single to left field which pushed across
Alex Gasbarro (New Lenox, Ill./St. Laurence High School) and
Tyler Schultz (Hobart, Ind./Hobart).
Jake Soules (Troy, Mich./Troy High School) capped off the scoring with an RBI single to right center to score Fumagalli.
Southwest Baptist (1-6) got its best chance of scoring in the bottom of the fourth after a leadoff error and a one-out single put two runners on with one out, but Burgh stepped up in a big way getting a strikeout and line out to end the threat.
Ethan Imlach (Mokena, Ill./Mount Carmel) gave PNW an insurance run in the top of the sixth when his two-out single to right allowed Soules to scamper in from second base.
Riley Gallagher (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington North High School) come on in relief in the seventh inning to close out the game on back-to-back strikeouts.
In the first game, the Bearcats raced out to a 3-0 lead with a run scored in each of the first three innings before the Pride would tie the game in the fourth.
Imlach smashed a pitch into left center to score Fumagalli and Schultz for the first runs on the season for PNW. Imlach would later score to tie the game at 3-3 on a bases-loaded wild pitch by the Southwest Baptist relief pitcher. But, the tie did not last long as Southwest Baptist regained the lead in the bottom of the frame on Brock Wilken's second home run of the game.
The Bearcats would extend their lead to 7-3 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the sixth, before
Bret Matthys (Cedar Lake, Ind./Hanover Central) earned the first RBI of his young career on a sacrifice fly to right field.
Anthony Noble (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield Central High School) tossed three frames in his first start on the mound this season while
Joe Buikema (Chicago, Ill./Notre Dame College Prep) and
Nick Stacey (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove South (College of DuPage)) combined for three innings of relief.
UP NEXT
The Pride and Bearcats will return to action against each other tomorrow at Dodson Field. First pitch for the nine-inning contest is slated for 5 p.m. CST.
FOLLOW THE PRIDE
For all the latest information on Purdue Northwest Baseball, please visit PNWathletics.com. For up-to-the-minute updates, follow the Pride (@pnwathletics / @PNW_Baseball) on Twitter. You can also find the Pride on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
