The Peacock baseball team split a Northern Sun Conference double header with the Wolves of Northern State University on Sunday afternoon in Fayette.  Northern State held on for a 5-3 victory in game one, but Upper Iowa rallied with a 19-9 victory in 8 innings in game two. UIU (8-9, 4-2 NSIC) and NSU (10-6, 3-1 NSIC) will get together for another double header on Monday afternoon beginning at 12 p.m.
 
Game One Recap – Northern State 5 – Upper Iowa 3
The Wolves jumped out to a 5-0 lead thanks to three runs in the second inning and two more in the sixth to chase the Peacock starter Zach Carstens with two outs in the sixth.  Miguel Rodriguez entered for UIU and held Northern State without a run over the final inning and a third, while the Upper Iowa offense began to break through.
 
Coulton Boucher (4-0) held the home team to just one hit through the first five innings and sat down 10 Peacocks straight from the second to fifth innings.  In the sixth, Luis Ravelo led off, was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a single by Cody Booker.  A single by Jacob Greco loaded the bases before a Colton Janssen sacrifice fly drove in UIU's first run of the game.  Boucher got out of the jam with a strikeout to end the inning.
 
In the seventh, Alex George tripled to open the frame and came home on a ground out from Anthony Calton.  Jacob Stenberg singled and moved to second after Callahan Seehase walked with one out. After a strikeout, Mitch Moser singled up the middle to plate Stenberg and cut the deficit to two runs, 5-3.  After a pitching change, Greco walked to load the bases putting the winning run on the base paths for the home team.  The comeback fell short as UIU's final out came on a flyball to the right field corner that was tracked down in stride to preserve the 5-3 victory for NSU.
 
Mikey Barreneche led the Northern State offense with three hits, while Boucher threw 6.1 innings while allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and striking out 4 Peacock batters. Dillon Lee picked up his second save by getting the final out.
 
Carstens (0-2) took the loss after throwing 5.2 innings and allowing five runs, four earned, on ten hits. 
 
Game Two Recap – Upper Iowa 19 – Northern State 9 (8 Inn.)
Northern State got out to an early lead in game two with two runs in the second, three more in the third and two in the fourth to force UIU's starter Tyus Adkins out of the game.  Upper Iowa's only run in the early innings came on a solo homerun to left field by Ravelo in the third. Trailing 7-1 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Peacocks pushed four unearned runs across the plate on two hits and two costly errors on the Wolves defense.
 
After Upper Iowa cut the gap to two runs, 7-5, they kept the pressure on the sixth inning.  Singles by George and Zach Cain around a walk to Janssen loaded the bases with no outs.  Stenberg hit a foul fly ball deep to right to drive in one run with the sac fly and after a ground out, Ravelo went to the opposite field for a three-run homer giving Upper Iowa a 9-7 lead.  The Wolves cut the gap to just one run, 9-8, in the top of the seventh on three singles. 
 
The home team didn't let up on offense scoring two runs on a pair of hits and a NSU error which led to a pair of unearned runs and gave UIU a 11-8 lead.  The Wolves scored a run again in the eighth after a leadoff triple by Preston Brown to pull within two, 11-9, heading to the bottom of the eighth.
 
In the bottom of the frame, the Peacocks exploded for eight runs on six hits and two more Northern State errors.  The scoring all happened with only one out in the inning which came on UIU's first run of the frame as Greco flew out to centerfield to plate Ravelo, who opened the inning with a single up the middle.  Jordan Kearns and Zach Cain each doubled down the left field line to plate two runs apiece and push UIU's lead to 16-9.  NSU's fifth error of the game led to another run for the Peacocks and a single by Booker drove in the final two runs as the game ended thanks to the NSIC's run rule with the home team ahead by ten, 19-9.
 
While Upper Iowa's offense took off in the fifth inning, the Wolves offense was held in check thanks to Collin Thomas and the UIU defense.  Thomas (1-1) picked up the win after throwing 3.1 innings and allowing just 2 runs on 6 hits.  Tanner Poor came into the game in the eighth inning and closed the frame out after facing the tying run and getting a pair of flyouts.  Adkins got off the hook with UIU's rally after allowing 7 runs on 10 hits in 4 innings.
 
At the plate Ravelo had three hits including the two long balls with four rbi and four runs scored, while Cain went 4-5 with 2 rbi and 2 runs scored.  Kearns and George also had multiple hits with each recording two hits in the game.