HOLLAND, Mich. – The Trine University baseball team dropped the final game of the team's series against Hope College 10-0 in seven innings. The game was postponed on Saturday, March 30 and made up on Monday afternoon.
The loss is Trine's sixth in a row as the Thunder fall to 8-12 overall and 0-3 in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) play. The Flying Dutch are now 9-10 and 3-0 inside the conference.
Daniel Rumberger had a single in the top of the first, but nothing more came of it in the inning. After loading the bases in the bottom of the inning, starting pitcher Rylan McBride (0-1) induced a groundball double play to get out of the situation unscathed. Back-to-back hits by Brody Bond and Easton Rhodes in the second were thwarted with a double play as well.
Hope broke the scoreless tie in the second with a two-run single and added one more in the third. The fifth and sixth innings saw the Flying Dutch continue to pile on to make it 6-0. Four hits in the bottom of the seventh secured the run-rule victory for Hope after a bases clearing double to walk it off.
The team's five hits were spread among five different players, but Joel Walton reached base twice with a single and a walk on the day. McBride and Owen Mitchell tossed three innings each, including the collegiate debut for the later.
The Thunder get right back to work on Tuesday, April 2 when the team hosts Adrian College for a mid-week conference affair beginning at 4 p.m.