SCORES: Earlham 6, Bluffton 4
LOCATION: Lexington, Kentucky – Kentucky Proud Park
RECORDS: Earlham 25-19 / Bluffton 20-24

LEXINGTON, Kentucky – Earlham College Baseball earned its way into the 2021 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament championship with a 6-4 win over Bluffton University, Saturday afternoon at Kentucky Proud Park.

The loss eliminated Bluffton from the tournament, and sent Earlham into Saturday afternoon's championship against top-seed Transylvania University. An Earlham victory in the Saturday afternoon game against Transy would force a deciding game on Sunday, May 23, at 12:30 p.m.

Bluffton plated a single run in the second on Brandon Wilson's base hit through the left side, and the Beavers added another run in the fifth when Jake Baumgartner's single into right-center scored Jacob Latkofsky.

Each team manufactured a run in the sixth inning, and the Beavers held a 3-1 lead over the Quakers after six complete.

Earlham finally got the better of Bluffton in the seventh. Pinch hitter Jeordon Kuderer reached on a error at short and Dopp drew a walk. Austin Hatfield bunted both runners around, and back-to-back singles from Brian Pincura and Maxwell Fries plated both runners to tie the game at 3-3.

Earlham took the lead on Isaiah Shake's double into the left field corner, allowing Brian Pincura and pinch runner James Grace to score to put the Quakers up 5-3.

Michael Medley's grounder to short bounced under the bare hand of the Bluffton to put runners on first and second, but Bluffton reliever Spencer Garrison induced a pair of fly outs to get the Beavers out of the frame.

The Beavers got two runners aboard in the bottom of the seventh, but the Quakers survived the threat unscathed.

The Quakers tacked on an extra run in the eighth inning when Austin Hatfield reached on a single, and eventually scored on a delayed steal play to put Earlham up 6-3. Bluffton got the run back in the eighth when Latkofsky singled home Garrett O'Reilly.

Reliever Jacob Renner got the win for the Quakers after coming on in the sixth for starter Domanick Michael. Chance Strickley closed out the eighth and pitched the ninth to earn his third save of the season.

Dopp finished the day 3-for-3 at the plate with one run, while Pincura went 2-for-4. Shake was 1-for-5 with two runs batted in for the Quakers.