AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Calvin University baseball team closed its spring break trip to Florida with a two-game split against Russel Sage College and Beloit College on Saturday at Lake Myrtle Park.
Calvin (7-5) won the morning game against Sage (6-5) 4-1 before dropping the afternoon game to Beloit (8-4) 9-7.
The Knights finished their Florida trip with a 6-4 record following the split.
Calvin 4, Sage 1
The Knights opened the day with a 4-1 win in the morning game against Sage.
Calvin fell behind on a solo home run in the third inning but held the Gators scoreless the rest of the way to allow the Knights' offense to get going.
Drew Diehl (Lansing, Mich./Lansing Catholic Central) started for the Knights and went six innings, allowing only the one run on four hits with five strikeouts to improve to 1-1 on the season.
The Calvin bats roared back in the fourth inning with a pair of runs on an RBI-single from
Ryan Schummer (West Lafayette, Ind./Central Catholic) and then an RBI-bunt single from
Ryan Tschirhart (Clinton, Mich./Clinton) to take a 2-1 lead.
The Knights added one run in the next two innings on a passed ball and a wild pitch to push the lead to 4-1, and the bullpen took control from there. Alex DiAngelis (Plymouth, Mich./Salem) got out of a bases loaded jam with no outs in the seventh inning and
Ethan DeBlecourt (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian/Spring Arbor) pitched two shutout innings to close the game for his first save of the season.
The Calvin offense finished with nine hits with
Matt Reynolds (Hopkins, Mich./Hopkins) and Tschirhart each recording two apiece. The defense also had a strong game behind the three pitchers as third baseman
Michial Schuster (Howell, Mich./Howell) started two inning-ending double plays to go with one hit at the plate.
Beloit 9, Calvin 7
Calvin closed its spring trip with a 9-7 loss to Beloit in the afternoon game.
The Knights started strong with three runs in the first inning. Schummer plated one with an RBI-single, while the Knights scored the other two runs on a wild pitch and double steal.
Beloit answered with one run in the first and four more in the second inning, but Calvin took the lead right back with a three-run fourth frame.
Gabe Bonemer (Okemos, Mich./Okemos) started the scoring with a sacrifice fly. Schummer followed with a single off the fence in right center and Reynolds drove in the third run with a ground rule double to give the Knights a 6-5 lead.
After Beloit scored once in the fourth to tie the score 6-6, the Buccaneers took control of the game with a three-run sixth inning. The Knights got one run in the eighth inning on a wild pitch but could not get any closer as the Beloit bullpen held them scoreless in the ninth to secure the win.
Noah Etnyre (Northville, Mich./Plymouth Christian) started the game for Calvin and went the first 1.1 innings. Jame Ross (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) struck out six in 3.2 innings in relief. Ben Feruguson (Grandville, Mich./Grandville) fell to 0-1 on the season after allowing three runs in 0.2 innings of relief.
Reynolds led the Calvin offense with three hits. Schummer added two hits and two RBI.
NEXT UP: Calvin baseball will return to action up north when it travels to Manchester University for a 1:00 PM game on Wednesday, March 19.
