ST. CHARLES, Mo. – The Lindenwood baseball team (5-7, 0-0 OVC) dropped their series finale against Northern Illinois (7-4, 0-0 MAC) by a score of 14-8 on Sunday afternoon. Lindenwood led by three runs entering the fifth inning before the Huskies scored nine unanswered to finish the game.

The Lindenwood offense managed eight hits in the contest, led by Will Geary and Filip Sarota with two hits apiece. Geary also recorded a season-high four RBIs.

The Lions cycled through five different pitchers, with Luke Wright getting tagged with the loss. Starter Ethan Smith allowed four earned runs on five hits with three strikeouts through 3.2 innings pitched to start the game.

Aaron Jungers put in a solid 3.1 innings of relief work, allowing just one run on three hits with three punch outs.

How it Happened
Lindenwood took their first lead on the game in the bottom of the first with a Will Geary base hit that drove in Charlie Isom-McCall and Kam Edwards, who had both drawn walks to reach base before executing a double steal to move into scoring position.

Following a scoreless second inning, NIU plated four runs in the top of the third to surge ahead before the Lions responded with two more runs in the bottom half, with Will Geary collecting his third RBI of the game with a double that scored Jake Radosevich before later stealing third and scoring on a William Zareh sacrifice fly.

Charlie Parcell scored on a wild pitch to retake the lead for NIU in the top of the fourth, but Lindenwood took advantage of a trio of critical mistakes by the Huskies in their half of the inning – including a wild pitch with a runner on third and a pair of errors – to take an 8-5 lead.

After Northern got two runs back in the top of the fifth, the Lions found themselves clinging to a one-run lead entering the eighth after failing to record a hit through the previous three innings.

The slim advantage would evaporate in the top of the eighth as Cooper Cohn was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to tie the game before Marcus Romero scored the go ahead run on a fielder's choice after LU was unable to turn two on a ground ball to escape the inning.

After Lindenwood batters were retired in order in the bottom of the eighth, NIU broke the game wide open with five runs in the top of the ninth, three of which came on a Caden Robertson home run to right field that bounced off the top of the fence and out of play.

Filip Sarota would record his second hit of the game with a double off the left field wall in the bottom of the ninth, but the Lions were unable to generate any further offense in frame.

Next Up
Lindenwood travels to Terre Haute on Wednesday, March 4^th for a midweek contest against Indiana State. First pitch against the Sycamores is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CT