SCORES: G1 – Earlham 10, Transylvania 5 / G2 – Earlham 7, Transylvania 4
LOCATION: Lexington, Kentucky – Legends Ballpark
RECORDS: Earlham 4-0 / Transylvania 1-2
LEXINGTON, Kentucky – Earlham College baseball improved to 4-0 on the young 2021 season after posting a doubleheader sweep over Transylvania University, Sunday afternoon at Legends Ballpark. The Quakers notched a 10-5 victory in game one, before completing the sweep with a 7-4 triumph in game two.
The Quakers' 4-0 mark is the program's best start since the 2018 campaign when Earlham opened up with a 12-0 record.
GAME 1
Earlham posted single runs in three of the first four innings on its way to a 4-1 lead over Transy, before breaking the game wide open with a three-run uprising in the fifth inning and adding two more runs in both the sixth and the seventh.
Connor Drews keyed the Earlham fifth with a two-run double to right center, plating
Cameron McCabe and
Brandon Lucero. A sac fly by
Isaiah Shake allowed
Easton Embry to cross for the third Quaker run of the frame.
Lucero stroked a two-run single to left for the two Earlham runs in the sixth, and the Quakers manufactured two runs in the seventh on two hits, a walk, a wild pitch, and a grounder to short that allowed
Danny Dopp to score.
Transylvania got four runs back in the top of the seventh on five hits, including an RBI double from Joshua Cain and a two-run single from Trent Pahl that he tried to stretch to a double only to be thrown out at second with an outfield assist going to McCabe.
Starter
Aidan Talarek last three-and-two-thirds innings before getting lifted in favor of
Domanick Michael, who went another three-and-a-third innings on the mound.
Chance Strickley came on to pitch the eighth and ninth, fanning three Pioneer batters.
GAME 2
Earlham posted three runs in the top of the first inning to make an early claim on game two, with the Quakers taking advantage of some Transy misfortune.
Marc Gendreau reached on a walk, and went to second on a Dopp single through the left side.
Austin Hatfield ad
Maxwell Fries were each hit-by-pitch, allowing Gendreau to score.
Brian Pincura drew a walk to force in Dopp, and a ball hit into center field resulted in Hatfield scoring for the third Quaker run.
The Quakers put up another three runs in the fifth, keyed by an RBI double from Hatfield, and tacked on an insurance run in the seventh on another Hatfield RBI hit.
Transy ended Earlham's shutout bid with a pair of runs in the seventh, and added two more on Trent Pahl's two-run home run to left-center in the top of the ninth.
Nick Carrizales fanned five Pioneer batters while scattering five hits over six-and-two-thirds innings of work, while
Ethan Khandaker earned the save after entering to pitch the ninth inning for the Quakers.
NEXT UP:
Earlham will return home to face Bluffton University on Saturday, March 13, in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader starting at 1:00 p.m.
