Canadian Marc Besteman (Bradford, Ont.) went five-for-six with a pair of RBIs to tie a Northern Illinois University record for hits in one game, Friday, in a 13-9 loss to the University of Nevada Wolfpack in Reno, Nevada.
“It was great because each and every one of those came in a situation where we needed a hit,” said Besteman, adding he would have traded all of those hits in for a Huskies win. “But I would rather have had five sac bunts and a win than five hits and a loss.”
With his parents on hand, having flow in from north or the border, Besteman (Bradford, Ont.) hit five singles to become only the fifth Huskies’ player and the first since 2002 to collect five hits in one game, his only hiccup coming in the eighth inning when he flied out to left field.
With two away in the top of the ninth inning and Besteman coming to the plate representing the last out of the game, the 21-year-old was solely focused on keeping the inning and his team’s hopes of winning alive.
“I didn’t know what the record was or that I was even going for a record there. My coach told me after the game,” he said. “I can recall having played a good double header, but I can’t recall ever picking up five hits in one game.”
Besteman, who played on a myriad of Ontario provincial teams during high school and hwoattended the Canadian National Junior Team prospects’ spring training camp in 2003, is now hitting .293 with seven RBIs and three stolen bases in 14 games this season.
Besteman’s record-tying game
1st : Single to right field
3rd: Single up the middle
4th: Single, advanced to second on the throw, RBI
7th: Single up the middle, RBI
8th: Flied out to left field
9th: Single to left-centre field
