June 4, 2005
Box Score
BATON ROUGE, La.-Northwestern State hurlers Derek Cloeren and Blake Jones limited Marist to four hits and powered the third-seeded Demons to a 4-3 victory Saturday in an elimination game at the NCAA Baseball Regional at Baton Rouge, La. Northwestern State (41-19) advanced to Sunday's 1 p.m. CST game with the win and will face the loser of the Saturday's second game between top-seeded LSU (39-20) and second-seeded Rice (42-17). Marist finished its season at 33-21 overall.
Jones (7-3) picked up the win, tossing five innings in relief and allowed one hit and three walks with one strikeout. The Red Foxes' Jonathan Smith (7-2) suffered his first loss as a starter this season, yielding four runs on eight hits in five innings with two strikeouts and one walk.
Marist first baseman Keith Brachold led the fourth-seeded Red Foxes with two hits and two RBI, while the Demons were paced offensively by right fielder Marty Dewees and first baseman Bob Barbier, who had two hits apiece.
Brachold moved into second on the school's all-time hits list (262) with authority in the bottom of the first when he hammered a Cloeren offering deep over the right field fence for a two-run homer to draw first blood for the Red Foxes. The shot was Brachold's team-leading seventh home run of the season.
The Demons finally got on the board against Smith in the bottom of the fourth when Barbier laced an RBI-single to center, sending Dewees home with NSU's first run.
Marist extended its lead to two runs in the top of the fifth when center fielder Travis Musolf scored on right fielder Kevin Grauer's RBI-groundout to short off NSU reliever Blake Jones. Grauer led the Red Foxes in the postseason with a .438 average in five games.
The Demons took their first lead in the bottom half of the inning with three runs to make the score 4-3 NSU. Center fielder Rusty Jones started the scoring with an RBI-infield single to score third baseman Hunter Thoms to bring the Demons within one. Dewees then tied the affair with an RBI-double down the right field line, scoring shortstop Scott Pittenger. Jones capped the inning's tallies by scoring the go-ahead run when Smith plunked Barbier with a pitch with the bases loaded. Smith got out of further danger by inducing an inning-ending double play ground ball from NSU catcher Michael Flower.
The Red Foxes threatened in the top of the sixth inning when they loaded the bases with one out, but second baseman Joe Sargent forced designated hitter Kevin Buck at home with a fielder's choice groundout to home and third baseman Pat Feeney ended the threat with a groundout to first.
