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ST. PARIS — Northwestern baseball coach Brent Parke took his team into shallow right field after the games and told the players the obvious.

"There's something special going on here," Parke said.

If the Warriors didn't know it before Tuesday, April 29, they know it now. They beat Graham 9-5 in the first game, finishing a game that had been postponed from Monday, and then completed the sweep with a 6-4 victory in the second game.

Northwestern senior Tyler Stephenson pitched 82/3 innings at Donzil Hall Field — the final 12/3 innings of the delayed game and all seven innings of the second game.

"He's a better kid than he is anything else," Parke said, "but he can play some baseball."

The victories give Northwestern (16-6 overall) a 7-4 mark in the Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division, tied with Urbana and Benjamin Logan for first place.

The first game started Monday at Northwestern and resumed Tuesday at Graham.

With the game tied in the sixth, the Falcons had the bases loaded with one out. Stephenson escaped the jam by inducing a pop-up and a ground out, and the Warriors took the lead with four runs in the bottom of the sixth.

In the second game, Stephenson surrendered four runs in the first three innings, but just one hit the rest of the way. With two victories on Tuesday, he improved to 5-2.

"My arm's a little tired, but I'm all right," Stephenson said. "I'll be hurting (this) morning, though."

Tyler's brother Kyle, a junior, started Monday's game and was pitching great, Parke said, until the rain came and disrupted his 10-strikeout performance. Graham tied the game with four runs in the sixth before the game was postponed.

Kyle was happy to give the ball to his brother on Tuesday.

"It's fun watching a good pitcher do a great job," Kyle said.

Northwestern won the games without two starters. Jason Frederick and Chase Corrello missed school with illnesses on Tuesday.

Last week, Northwestern beat Greenon twice and Shawnee once without two other starters who had been suspended for the three CBC games. In all, the Warriors have won nine games in a row.

"This team right now, we're feeding off the adversity," Parke said. "We're starting to overcome it."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0351 or djablonski@coxohio.com.

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