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In his first game back from injury Nick Karis drives in the winning runs and makes a game-saving throw as Northwest beats Whitman 6-4.
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By Kyle Wannen
For DigitalSports.com

While all of Northwest's baseball team might have been a little rusty coming back from spring break, junior outfielder Nick Karis should have been even rustier considering he had not played in a game yet this season because of a knee injury he suffered while playing basketball in gym class.

Karis, however, showed no signs of rust in Friday's game against Whitman as he drove in the game-winning run with a pinch-hit, 2-RBI single in the fifth inning and then threw out a runner trying to score in the seventh inning as Northwest beat the Vikings 6-4.

"The knees a little sore right now but I play my hardest every time I go out there," Karis said.

"You could do a 1/2-hour special on everything that's happened to him over the last couple of years," Northwest coach Matt Noble said. "We knew we wanted to pinch hit him at some point today and we didn't know if we were going to get him in the field but we wanted to slowly work him back. He's a horse. He's a heck of a player."

Karis' hit capped off a four-run fifth inning for the Jaguars (6-1) as they retook the lead after being tied at two. Third baseman Nick Loftus started the scoring when he blasted a hangin curverball over the left field fence for a two-run home run. Loftus finished the game 3-3 with two RBIs and two runs.

"I was just trying to hit the ball hard," Loftus said. "The last couple of games I've been kind of hitting the ball and just hit ground balls and hit pop flys."

"Nick is a terrific hitter," Noble said. "He's very disciplined at the plate. He really understands hitting up there and then he's got some ability."

Two of the next three batters reached base before Karis came up to the plate and laced a sharp line drive in the right-center gap to score both runners, which would end up being the game-winning runs.

"After that 3-0 pitch I just said if he was going to throw it a little lower I'd hit it and it was low so I just gave it my best shot."

Pitcher Dominique Vattuone scattered two runs over six inning before getting into some trouble in the seventh and leaving after he loaded the bases with one out. After a walk drove in one run, Whitman left fielder Dan Novak ripped a single up the middle that rolled right to Karis. He came up gunning and fired a frozen rope right to home to catch the sliding runner and keep the Jaguar's lead at two.

Vattuone got the win after giving up four run through 6 and 1/3 and striking out four. He also drove in two runs in the first inning with a double to the gap.

Whitman (5-2) got runs in the third and fourth innings on a sacrifice fly by shortstop Jesse Matos and a RBI single by catcher Dan Lee. The Vikings scored two runs in the seventh after trailing 6-2 but could not get a clutch hit to tie the game.

"I like the group of kids I have because there's not quit," Whitman coach Joe Cassidy said. "Sometimes kid would have been, 'alright 6-2 with that kid on the mound, no way.' We got the tying run on base, the go-ahead run at bat so I can't complain about that."