DAVENPORT, Fla. – The Calvin University baseball team returned to action on Monday in Florida with a doubleheader split against Washington & Jefferson College at Northeast Regional Park.
 
Calvin (4-4) won the opener 7-3 before dropping game two to W&C (5-2) 7-0.
 
Game 1
 
Calvin jumped on top early and never looked back on the way to winning game one 7-3.
 
The Knights scored four times in the first inning and added two more in the second to take a 6-0 lead over the Presidents. The first four Calvin hitters reached base in the opening frame, with the first run coming on an error before Landon Evans (Richland, Mich./Gull Lake), Noah Swope (Portage, Mich./Portage Central) and Karsten Peglowski (Cave Creek, Ariz./Cactus Shadows) drove in runs to make the score 4-0. The Knights added their two runs in the second inning on an RBI-double from Landen Mikula (St. Johns, Mich./St. Johns) and a run-scoring single from Ryan Tschirhart (Clinton, Mich./Clinton) to push the lead to 6-0.
 
Starting pitcher James Ross (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) cruised through the first three innings without allowing a hit and then allowed only one run over the next two innings to get through five with the Knights still leading 7-1 after an Evans RBI-double in the fourth inning scored Tschirhart.
 
The Presidents rallied for two in the sixth inning off Ross to cut their deficit to 7-3, but Alex DeAngelis (Plymouth, Mich./Salem) worked around a hit by pitch and single in the seventh to close out the game.
 
Ross (1-0) earned the win after allowing three runs on five hits with three strikeouts in six innings. Mikula, Tschirhart and Evans each finished with two hits in the game., with Gabe Bonemer (Okemos, Mich./Okemos) and Mikula scoring two runs apiece.
 
Game 2
 
W&J broke open a scoreless game through three innings with a five-run fourth frame on the way to winning game two 7-0.
 
Calvin starting pitcher Ben Hoekstra (Hudsonville, Mich./Unity Christian) faced the minimum number of nine batters in three scoreless innings to start the game, but ran into trouble in the fourth as the Presidents' first five hitters of the frame reached base and scored, capped by a three-run home run by Carl Wagner to push the lead to 5-0.
 
Ryan Rohrer (Richland, Mich./Kalamazoo Christian) kept the Knights within striking distance with three scoreless innings in relief, but W&J starting pitcher Brendan Cruz held the Calvin line-up to two hits through six scoreless innings and Luke Alvarez pitched a clean seventh inning to close out the game.
 
Hoekstra (0-1) took the loss after allowing five runs on four hits and three walks in three-plus innings. Rohrer struck out six and allowed one hit in three innings in relief. Christian Stevens (South Lyon, Mich./South Lyon) and Tschirhart recorded the two Calvin hits.
 
COACH'S COMMENT: "Good day for us against a very good Washington & Jefferson team," Calvin head coach Joel Schipper said. "It was great to see us get off to another good start on offense and James Ross did a great job going through a tough line-up and getting us through six. Unfortunately we couldn't avoid that big inning in game two, but still some good things to see from a lot of guys today all around."
 
NEXT UP: Calvin baseball returns to action on Tuesday, March 10, when it faces Keystone College in a doubleheader at Northeast Regional Park starting at 9:00 AM.