Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 By John Leerar
ADRIAN - The Calvin Knights Baseball team traveled to the east side of the state on Friday to take on the league-leading Bulldogs of Adrian College in a twinbill. Calvin, being four games behind the Bulldogs in the MIAA standings, was looking to take two and move into a position to win a share of the regular season title on Saturday.
However, this was not to be as Adrian won both ends of the twinbill by scores of 9-0 and 3-2.
In the first game, it was all Bulldogs. The Knights managed just three hits, all singles, against a dominant performance by Adrian pitcher Eric Schmidt.
Hitting base knocks in the game for the Knights were senior Grant Van Putten (Holland/Holland Christian HS), freshman Nate DeZwaan (Holland/Holland Christian HS), and senior Ben Wohl (Canton/Plymouth HS)
Senior Ben Guilfoyle (Romeoville, IL/Plainfield East HS) took the loss on the hill, dropping to 5-4 on the year.
"I didn't think we played very well in game one," said head coach John Rypel. "We didn't support our pitcher well enough both with the bats and on the field."
In the second half of the doubleheader, the Knights jumped out to an early lead in the top of the second on an RBI groundout by senior Brian Exner (Niles/Brandywine HS).
Calvin then added an insurance run in the fifth with an RBI single by junior Jordan VanderWall (Wyoming/South Christian HS).
Adrian stormed back in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game up at two apiece, where the score would stay until won the game on a sac fly to right in the bottom of the ninth.
Junior Kyle Wasserberger (Spring Lake/Spring Lake HS) took the loss in relief for the Knights, dropping to 3-4 on the year.
Notable offensive performances for the Knights included sophomore Patrick Avila (Lakewood, CA/Valley Christian HS) going 2 for 4 and Grant Van Putten reaching base on all four at-bats on the day, including a double. Van Putten is now hitting a blistering .448 in conference play.
"We definitely had our chances in this game," said Rypel. "We had the lead going into the late innings and just couldn't hold on. We will have to be ready for them tomorrow."
With the losses, Calvin drops to 16-10 in the MIAA, one game ahead of Kalamazoo.
Due to tiebreaking rules, if Calvin and Kalamazoo tie to end the season, Calvin would end up with the third seed in the conference tournament and Kalamazoo would take the second seed and hosting duties for the first round.
The Knights will be back in action on Saturday at home against the Bulldogs with the doubleheader slated to start at 1 p.m.
