AUBURNDALE, Fla. – After their doubleheader was postponed on Sunday, the Trine University baseball team was in action bright and early on Monday morning and collected a 6-0 shutout win over Saint Vincent College.
The Thunder (2-2) were led by Cam Nagel (2-0) on the bump with seven innings of work where he allowed just two hits, three walks and fanned a pair. Kade Keele and Cole Decker each threw an inning of relief work to preserve the zero in the Bearcats' (0-1) run column.
The hitters also notched 16 hits on the day while Saint Vincent was held to just four in total. Tyler Beyke and Dalton Nikirk had three hits each while Cole Temple reached base in three of his five trips to the dish with a pair of walks and a homerun. Joel Walton and Cole Schmidthuber had two RBIs each.
In the first inning, Nagel struggled to find the strike zone but a bases loaded double play was able to get the senior out of the inning and kick start his quality outing. A sacrifice fly by Brody Bond would give Trine the lead in the opening frame.
Nagel retired seven in a row to get to the fourth inning where the offense would provide more insurance. Nikirk, Nathan Gilmet and Easton Rhodes all singled to load the bases for Walton to deliver with a sacrifice fly as well. Schmidthuber drove in two more runs with a single to left in the following at-bat.
The Bobcats' offense was limited to just a single hit in innings five through seven and that runner was retired by Gilmet behind the plate for a caught stealing to close the sixth. A Bond single and Gilmet double allowed Walton to give the Thunder a 5-0 lead with an infield single. This put Nagel in position to receive the win upon turning the ball over to the bullpen.
Keele induced two flyball outs and ended the eighth with a strikeout, leaving Saint Vincent with just three outs to work with. A solo homerun by Temple in the bottom of the eighth further increased the Trine lead to 6-0 and Decker ended the game with two strikeouts and a pick off in the ninth.
On Wednesday, March 6, the Thunder take on North Central University out of Minnesota for a doubleheader beginning at 3 p.m.