ANDERSON, Ind. – The Trine University baseball team kicked off the 2024 season on the road Sunday at Anderson University for a doubleheader. The Thunder and Ravens split the first two games of a three-game set after Anderson won game one 14-1 in seven innings and Trine took game two 21-17.
GAME ONE RECAP:
The Thunder fell behind 3-0 despite putting a runner in scoring position in each of the first two innings. The team would manufacture a run in the top of the third when freshman Cole Temple drew a walk, stole second and advanced to third on an error. He was driven home by senior Dalton Nikirk with an RBI single. An error in the bottom half of the frame would allow three unearned runs to cross in a 6-1 game.
The Ravens would chase senior starting pitcher Josh Hoogewerf (0-1) from the game with a pair of extra base hits to lead off the fourth. In total, it would be three runs in the fourth and five more in the fifth to get to the 14-1 deficit. The only clean inning for the Thunder would come from sophomore Caden Heminger when he tossed a zero in the sixth.
Nikirk had two hits in the game while Temple reached base twice via the walk. Other hits were credited to senior Easton Rhodes, junior Dane DuBois and freshman pinch hitter Luke Burford. Hoogewerf struck out four of the seven batters for the team in the game.
GAME TWO RECAP:
The bats came alive for Trine in game number two as the Thunder put 21 runs on the board, the sixth most in a game in program history. A ten-run eighth inning put the result out of reach, but Anderson made things interesting in the final two innings.
The Ravens picked up where they left off in game one with three runs, but the starting pitcher senior Cam Nagel settled in for three shutout innings after a rocky start. A three-run homerun by Temple, the first of his collegiate career, tied the game up in the top of the third and Trine added on in the next inning.
A two-run single by DuBois plated freshman Nathan Gilmet and sophomore Brayden Basey while Temple did the same later in the frame to score DuBois and sophomore Cole Schmidthuber to increase the lead to 7-3. A Gilmet RBI single and two RBI single by Temple extended the lead to 10-3 in the fifth. Anderson threw a counter punch with a five-run bottom of the fifth to make the score 10-8.
After trading runs in the sixth and seventh innings, the Thunder took their two-run lead and added a one in front of it by bringing 16 batters to the plate in a ten-run eighth. Gilmet blasted his first career homerun in the inning while Nikirk, Burford and Basey all had RBI hits. Temple and senior Daniel Rumberger drew bases loaded walks as well. Trine chased three pitchers from the game without recording an out.
The Ravens responded with their backs against the wall to extend the ballgame with four runs in the eighth to make it 21-13. They would do the same with four more runs in the ninth, but the Thunder had built up enough of a gap to close the game out 21-17.
Temple drove in seven runs in the game on four hits and one walk. Nikirk reached base four times with three hits and a walk with two RBIs. Sophomore Brody Bond had a multi-hit day at 2-for-4 with a base on balls. The trio of Gilmet, Basey and DuBois had multiple hits and two or more RBIs batting 6-7-8 in the lineup. Schmidthuber reached base four times, three on walks.
UP NEXT:
The three-game series between Trine (1-1) and Anderson (3-2) will conclude on Monday, February 26 at 2 p.m.