RICHMOND – A pair of back-to-back homeruns in the eighth inning gave the Earlham College baseball team the edge against No. 22 Adrian College in a damp Sadler Stadium on Friday afternoon.

The Quakers improved to 11-3 while the Bulldogs fell to 8-5 coming off of a run to the College World Series in 2021.

Nathan Lancianese tallied a pair of hits, a triple and a home run, and caused two RBI on the afternoon. Andrew Bradley also homered for the Quakers with two hits and one RBI.

Justin Dillhoff started the game on the mound and pitched five innings, allowing four runs and eight hits. Aidan Talarek took over in the sixth inning and pitched his way to the winning decision with only two hits and no runs allowed. 

The Bulldogs got rolling early with a two-run home run to left field in the top of the first inning. After allowing a double on the next play, Dillhoff escaped the inning by inducing two flyouts from Adrian. 

The Quakers first score came in the bottom of the third inning when Nathan Lancianese hit a lead-off home run over the Maroon Monster in left field. A ground ball put in play by Maxwell Fries allowed third baseman Devin Basely to reach home plate for the score.

Adrian scored two more runs in the top of the fourth inning, kicked off by a wild pitch score from Dillhoff. The second run scored from a single to left field that was almost thrown down by outfielder Jeordon Kuderer in time. 

Kuderer got redemption in the bottom of the inning when shortstop Zach Swearingen hit a sacrifice fly to right field that brought Kuderer home for the run to put the Quakers down 4-3. 

Bradley scored in the bottom of the sixth inning from a wild pitch after a walk and a sacrifice bunt helped him around the basepath. 

The Quakers took the lead in the bottom of the eighth after a pitching change from the Bulldogs. Christian Lancianese hit a lead-off home run to left-center field before Bradley managed to crush a ball over the parking lot outside of left field. After Kuderer was moved around the bases by ground balls put in play, Nathan Lancianese hit a triple to right field to bring home the final score of the afternoon for the home squad. 

Earlham will be back in action on Tuesday as the Quakers have their first road trip of the season at Wittenberg University. First pitch is slated for 7 pm.