AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Calvin University baseball team held off a late rally from Concordia University Chicago (CUC) to win 6-5 on Friday at Lake Myrtle Park to improve to 5-2 on its spring break trip.
 
Calvin (5-5) got off to another strong start with two runs in the top of the first inning on a Nate Mason (Portage, Mich./Portage Northern) double and Caden Penn (Macomb, Mich./Lutheran North) to give the Knights a 2-0 edge.
 
Michial Schuster (Howell, Mich./Hartland) got the start for the Knights on the mound and worked his way through four scoreless innings with the help of a strong defensive effort that recorded double plays in the first and fourth innings to help Schuster out of jams to keep the Knights in the lead.
 
Calvin added to its lead in the fourth on a double steal that scored Penn from third base, and then scored twice more in the sixth on an RBI-single from Logan Nelson (Fremont, Mich./Fremont) and a squeeze bunt by Aidan Jaworowski (Zeeland, Mich./Zeeland East) to extend the lead to 5-0.
 
The Cougars got on the scoreboard with two runs in the seventh off reliever Ryan Tschirhart (Clinton, Mich./Clinton), but Matt Reynolds (Hopkins, Mich./Hopkins) got one of them back with a  sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to push the lead back to four at 6-2 heading into the ninth.
 
In the bottom of the ninth, the Cougars rallied with a two-run home run and added another run on an error, but Calvin reliever Levi Suter (Martinsville, Ind./Martinsville) got the final out to secure the one-run win.
 
Schuster, Tschirhart (1-0), Kyle Koning (Kalamazoo, Mich./Kalamazoo Christian) and Suter combined to allow four earned runs with three strikeouts and only one walk.
 
Ryan Brown (Caledonia, Mich./Caledonia) led the Knights with two hits and scored one run. Penn stole two bases to go with his one hit and one run.
 
COACH'S COMMENT: "Great pitching performance by our staff," Calvin head baseball coach Kevin Van Duyn said. "We were solid in all phases. On a day the bats where the bats weren't going quite like they have most of the week, our execution on the mound, defense, the bases and with situational hitting helped us pull out a win against a good team."
 
NEXT UP: Calvin baseball returns to action tomorrow (Saturday, March 9) when it closes out its spring break trip at Northeast Regional Park in Davenport, Florida. The Knights will face Chatham at 9:00 AM, followed by a game against Pittsburgh at Greensburg at 12:15 PM.