PHOTO GALLERY
CALEDONIA, Mich. – The Calvin University baseball team finished a long day filled with weather delays with a doubleheader split with Hope College to win the rivalry series.
Hope (20-18, 13-8 MIAA) won the opening game 15-5, while Calvin (18-21, 9-12 MIAA) took the second game 4-0 to record its first shutout of the season.
The games were originally scheduled for the afternoon at Calvin, but were moved to the Farmers Insurance Athletic Complex at Davenport due to unplayable field conditions after overnight and morning rain.
Game 1
The Flying Dutchmen bats came alive in game one on the way to a 15-5 win over the Knights.
Calvin jumped out to an early 3-1 lead thanks to a pair of
Patrick Gillen (Jensen Beach, Fla./Jensen Beach) RBI-doubles and a
Caden Penn (Macomb, Mich./Lutheran North) sacrifice fly, but the Hope offense would start to turn the tables in the third inning.
In that third frame, the Flying Dutchmen scored five times off two Calvin pitchers, and then added three more in the fourth inning to push their lead to 9-3 after four.
Hope would continue to add to its lead, scoring twice in each of the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, while the Knights were only able to tack on two to its total on an RBI-double from
Josh Winkle (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian) in the eighth and another Penn sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Ian Doyle (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grandville) fell to 1-5 on the season in the start after going the first 2.1 innings, while Calvin pitchers combined to allow 14 hits and hit nine Hope batters.
Gillen led the Calvin offense with three hits.
Game 2
The Knights closed the season and the series with a 4-0 shutout over the Flying Dutchmen in game two.
Evan Steinbacher (Sparta, Mich./Sparta) was the story to start the game as the sophomore starting pitcher shut out Hope for 6.2 innings, and three Calvin relievers combined to finish off the shutout and preserve the win.
Calvin broke the 0-0 early tie on a two-run double from Penn that scored Gillen and
Ryan Brown (Caledonia, Mich./Caledonia). The double pushed Penn's Calvin-record career total to 56, and also set a new Calvin record with 131 career RBI.
Brown added to the Knights' advantage in the sixth inning with a single that scored
Noah Etnyre (Northville, Mich./Plymouth Christian Academy) to push the lead to 3-0.
Steinbacher began to run into trouble in the seventh inning after a pair of Hope singles, but
Levi Suter (Martinsville, Ind./Martinsville) ended a bases-loaded threat with a groundout to second baseman
Isaac Hubka (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian).
The Flying Dutchmen put two runners aboard again to start the eighth inning, but
Ben Ferguson (Grandville, Mich./Grandville) ended that threat with a strikeout and double play to keep the Knights ahead 3-0.
After an error helped the Knights add to the lead in the bottom half of the eighth inning, Hope brought the tying run to the plate with the bases loaded in the ninth inning. This time, it was
Matt Reynolds (Hopkins, Mich./Hopkins) who struck out three of the four batters he faced for his second save of the weekend to secure the win.
Steinbacher (5-3) earned the win after allowing only six hits and one walk while striking out six in his 6.2 innings.
Brown and Gillen combined for five hits and two runs scored at the top of the order to lead the offensive effort.
COACH'S COMMENT: "Really proud of our guys this last weekend," Calvin head baseball coach
Kevin Van Duyn said. "We were mathematically out of the playoffs while Hope had everything to play for, and to come out and win the series with two out of three while getting our first shutout of the season was great. Even (Steinbacher) pitched great, and then we had some relief pitchers get key outs with Matt (Reynolds) closing out his second game in two days along with some timely hitting by our offense."
