FARGO - It was 47 degrees with a decent breeze from the north when Patrick Riewer threw his 125th pitch of the night. It was a double-play grounder in the bottom of the ninth inning that finished a 4-3 win for the University of North Dakota over North Dakota State in college baseball.
The oddity in the performance is he came to Newman Outdoor Field with three innings pitched all season. He left with one of the more memorable college baseball performances of his career.
"A rivalry win is definitely big," Riewer said.
It's a familiar name in the area - his cousin Jordan plays basketball for Minnesota State Moorhead and his older brother Michael played two years with the Bison baseball team.
"What did he throw, three innings before tonight?" said Bison head coach Tod Brown. "Unbelievable. He pitched really well."
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For a while, it was looking iffy if he was going to top three innings against NDSU.
But the senior from Wadena, Minn., showed a veteran touch - getting stronger as the temperatures got colder. The Bison had a few minor threats from the fourth through eighth innings, twice getting two hits with two out but nothing further.
"I worked through that," Riewer said.
It got to the point in the late innings when UND's Jeff Dodson had the look of a head coach walking to the mound ready to insert a reliever. But Dodson said he asked for catcher Taylor Petersen's opinion and Petersen said stick with Riewer.
"So we let him throw," Dodson said. "He's used to throwing that many pitches in the summer and JUCO. The pitch count was not an issue."
There was a dose of odd plays and rare calls in the first five innings with UND on the wrong end of most of them.
It had one batter called out for bunting the ball while out of the batter's box. In the top of the fourth, with runners on first and third and one out, Luis Calvo was called out for interfering with NDSU catcher Kyle Kleinendorst, who was attempting to throw to third base to pick off a runner.
One inning later, UND squandered another potential big inning when a runner was ruled to leave early from third base on a sacrifice fly. It left the game tied at 3-3.
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UND took a 4-3 advantage, however, in the sixth. Jeff Campbell made a two-out fly ball that was misplayed by left fielder Jon Hechtner hurt with a run-scoring double. Of the four UND runs, the table was set with walks - the Bison gave seven of them.
"You can't let people get on base free of charge," Brown said. "Then they get a hit at the right time. If we don't walk anybody, they don't score."
UND improved to 9-20 in the non-conference game. NDSU is 15-19.
UND 000 031 000-4 1 1
NDSU 021 000 000-3 10 2
Riewer and Petersen, Mayo, Lambrecht (4), Terres (4), Choles (8), Flaa (9) and Kleinendorst. W-Riewer (1-0). L-Terres (1-1).
Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack can be reached at (701) 241-5546.
Kolpack's NDSU media blog can be found
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