ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University baseball team kicked off their three-game series with Calvin University on Saturday with a home doubleheader at Jannen Field. The Thunder topped the Knights in extra innings in game one by a score of 8-7 and attempted to come from behind to shock Calvin in game two, but were one run short, 6-5.
Trine is now 9-18 overall and 1-9 in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) play after the split. Calvin is an even .500 at 14-14 and 5-5 inside the conference.
GAME ONE RECAP:
A two-out hit scored a run for the visiting Knights in the first, but the Thunder secured a run of their own via a Dalton Nikirk RBI double. Trine took the lead in inning number two with a three-run bottom of the second. Tyler Beyke had an infield single that plated a run and Daniel Rumberger drove in a pair of runs with a single up the middle.
After seven straight outs from the starting pitcher Josh Hoogewerf, a two-run homerun by Calvin brought the visitors back into it, 4-3. Preston Henschen led off the bottom of the fourth with a single and Beyke launched his first career homerun to answer for two runs of their own.
Runs in the sixth and seventh innings chased Hoogewerf after 6.1 innings on the bump, but he exited with the lead intact. Two unearned runs off the reliever Jack Villarreal allowed the Knights to retake the lead 7-6 with nine outs for the Thunder to work with.
The drama was at an all-time high for Trine as they were down to their final out, but Nathan Gilmet laced a double into the right center field gap to plate Cole Schmidthuber and tie the game at 7-7. Relief pitcher Noah Brettin (2-2) kept the Knights off the scoreboard in the tenth inning, setting up Nikirk to deliver the game-winning RBI single to score Luke Burford after he reached on a single up the middle and advanced to second on a wild pitch.
Beyke was 3-for-5 in the game with six total bases and three RBIs. Rumberger and Nikirk had multi-hit and multi-RBI games in the first of two on Saturday. Hoogewerf fanned five in his 6.1 innings to lead the pitching staff. The victory snapped an 11-game losing spell.
GAME TWO RECAP:
Calvin got on the board in the first inning yet again in game two, however starter Cam Nagel (2-4) danced around trouble the entirety of his appearance. Nagel allowed a single run in the first, but got out of bases loaded jams in each of the first three innings to limit the damage. The top of the fourth saw the Knights score an unearned run with a sacrifice fly, but the score was just 2-0 despite 13 batters reaching base.
A two-run double for the visiting team in the top of the fifth extended Calvin's lead to 4-0, but the Trine offense was able to come through for their pitching staff in the bottom half of the inning. Gilmet and Beyke singled to set up Burford and Rumberger to drive in runs to cut the Knight lead in half, 4-2.
Reliever Cole Decker twirled a 1-2-3 sixth and the Thunder went back to work to catch up in the sixth. Walks by Joel Walton and Cole Temple put traffic on the basepaths for Gilmet to deliver a sacrifice fly to put the score at 4-3. Calvin added two runs of insurance in the top of the seventh, but in Trine's final at-bats, they made things interesting.
A single, double and hit by pitch loaded the bases for Walton and he dropped one into center field for a hit to keep the train moving. Pinch hitter Jack Kletzly hit a long flyball to score one more run, but with the tying run in scoring position, the Knights were able to get the required outs and secure the win, 6-5.
Beyke was the only man with multiple hits in game two, but a diversified offensive attack featured five different student-athletes drive in runs. Three of the team's five K's were credited to Nagel.
UP NEXT:
The series finale between Trine and Calvin takes place on Monday, April 15 at 4 p.m. in Grand Rapids, Michigan.