CINCINNATI, Ohio – The Earlham College baseball team won a share of the HCAC Regular Season Championship with a split at Mount St. Joseph University on Saturday.
The Quakers tie with Transylvania for the regular season title, but take the No.1 seed for the HCAC Tournament next weekend by a tiebreaker over the Pioneers.
GAME ONE: EARLHAM 8 MSJ 5
Kyle Jeffries earned the win in game one, tossing 6.2 innings with four runs and two strikeouts.
Hayden Scalf came in in the bottom of the seventh, and pitched 1.1 innings with one run on three hits.
Garret Odey earned a save with one inning pitched, allowing one hit with one strikeout.
Mitchell Roether reached base four times, going 1-3 at the plate with two walks, one run scored and one RBI.
Chris Barnett went 2-5 with one run scored.
Jonathan Jimenez scored two runs, and stole three bags.
After three free passes in the top of the first inning, the Quakers plated a run on a ball put in play by
Noah Wagster. Third baseman
Austin Dick then earned an RBI with a bases-loaded walk for a 2-0 lead. The Lions responded with a run in the bottom of the inning.
Freshman
Evan Duncan hit a leadoff double in the top of the second inning, and scored on a single by Jimenez for a 3-1 lead. MSJ then tied the game in the bottom of the frame with two runs on four hits.
Sean Jeffries earned a leadoff walk in the top of the fourth inning. The senior took second on a balk, advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on a balk to give the Quakers the lead again. Duncan added to the lead in the top of the fifth with a sacrifice fly for a 5-3 score.
Earlham plated three runs on four hits in the top of the seventh. Barnett hit a leadoff single, and advanced to third with two outs in the inning. Jeffries then hit an RBI-single, followed by a hit-by-pitch to set up an RBI-hit by Roether.
Jackson McFarland plated the final run of the frame with an RBI-single to left field.
The Lions scored one run in the bottom of the seventh, and one in the bottom of the eighth.
GAME TWO: EARLHAM 2 MSJ 9
Cayman Huntsman made the start in game two, tossing one inning with two runs on three hits.
Casey Blevins went 3.2 innings with one earned run and one strikeout. Freshman
Lane Willoughby went 2.2 innings before
Christopher Snider and
Braeden Lewis finished out the eighth inning for the Quakers.
Austin Dick went 3-4 while Duncan had a multi-hit game.
MSJ scored two runs on three hits in the bottom of the first inning, and added a run in the bottom of the second.
Trailing 3-0, Roether hit a leadoff home run in the top of the fourth to tie the Earlham program record with 26 career long balls.
MSJ added insurance runs in both the fifth and seventh innings.
Barnett was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the top of the eighth to bring in a run, and the Lions scored four runs on six hits in the bottom of the inning to take a 9-2 lead.
The Quakers receive the No.1 seed for the HCAC Tournament next weekend. The team will have to wait to see its first opponent, and will play at 4:30 pm on Thursday in Kokomo.
