SCORES: G1 – Manchester 4, Earlham 2 / G2 – Earlham 12, Manchester 9
LOCATION: North Manchester, Indiana – Gratz Field
RECORDS: Earlham 21-18 / Manchester 19-20

NORTH MANCHESTER, Indiana – Earlham College baseball wrapped up its 2021 regular season with a doubleheader split against Manchester University – a split which should give the Quakers the right to host an opening round best-of-three series next weekend in the 2021 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament. The Quakers dropped the day's opening game, 4-2, before recovering to defeat the Spartans, 12-9, in game two.

Fifth-year senior Danny Dopp added to the day's achievements with a pair of hits in the second game of the twinbill: career hits no. 193 and 194 for the South Haven, Michigan, native, allowing Dopp to claim Earlham's career hits record. Dopp eclipsed the previous record of 192, set by Nate Lynch (2014-17).

GAME 1
Manchester put two runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning despite having no hits in the frame. The Spartans benefited from a hit-by-pitch, a two-base Earlham error, a sacrifice fly, a walk, and a fielder's choice grounder to manufacture their runs. Manchester tacked on single runs in the fourth and fifth inning to take a 4-0 lead.

Earlham got on the scoreboard with a pair of runs in the sixth. Isaiah Shake plated Brian Pincura with a single down the left field line, and Marc Gendreau pushed Cameron McCabe acrosse later in the frame on a ground out to second base.

The Quakers tallied nine hits to the Spartans' five, with Shake, McCabe, and Austin Hatfield each recording a pair of hits in the game.

Starter Aidan Talarek was charged with the loss for the Quakers after allowing four runs, two earned, on four hits with five strikeouts in five innings of work.

GAME 2
After trading two runs in the third inning, Earlham grabbed a 5-2 lead in the top of the fourth keyed by Gendreau's two-run double down the right field line.

Manchester narrowed the gap with a single run in the home half of the frame, however the Quakers got the run back in the top of the fifth on Cameron Wissel's sac fly to score Pincura, leaving Earlham with a 6-3 lead.

The Quakers extended their advantage to 9-3 with a three-run sixth inning, with Shake's two-run double down the left field line accounting for two of the Earlham runs.

Manchester began to battle its way back into the game starting in the bottom of the sixth, plating a single run to cut the margin to 9-4. Brady Perez's two-run blast to left-center left Earlham with a 9-6 lead through seven innings.

Earlham reinforced its lead with a three-spot in the top of the eighth, stretching its lead to 12-6. Hatfield's base hit to right-center plated pinch runner Jason Grace, and Christian Lancianese's single into the gap in left-center drove in Shake and Pincura. The added insurance runs were needed as Manchester answered with three runs of its own in the bottom of the eighth, reducing the Earlham lead to 12-9, but the Quakers held off the Spartans in the ninth to clinch the win.

NEXT UP:
Earlham's split against Manchester should secure for the Quakers the right to host an opening round series in the 2021 HCAC Baseball Tournament; official tournament pairings will be announced on Sunday after the completion of all games around the conference. All best-of-three opening round series will begin on Friday, May 14, with the top five teams in the final regular season standings hosting the bottom five teams.