ADRIAN, Mich. – The Calvin University baseball team was unable to overcome big innings and defensive miscues in a pair of losses at Adrian College on Friday.
Adrian (16-6, 3-2 MIAA) won game one 16-7 before topping Calvin (9-15, 0-5 MIAA) in game two 11-5.
Game 1
The Bulldogs jumped out to a big lead early and held off a late Calvin rally to win game one 16-7.
Adrian did much of its work offensively early in the game thanks to a nine-run third inning and added four more in the fourth inning to take a 14-0 lead into the seventh inning.
The Calvin bats responded in the seventh, scoring seven times to keep the game alive thanks to a two-run double from
Sam Hungerford (Wyoming, Mich./Grandville), an RBI-single from
Thomas Paplawsky (Grand Rapids, Mich./Forest Hills Central)) and a three-run triple from
Ryan Tschirhart (Clinton, Mich./Clinton) to cut the deficit in half, but that would be as close as the Knights could get the rest of the way and the Bulldogs added two more runs in the eighth to finish off the win.
James Ross (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) fell to 1-3 on the season after allowing 10 runs (one earned) on seven hits and five walks while striking out four in three innings.
Ben Ferguson (Grandville, Mich./Grandville) pitched well in relief with three strikeouts and allowed two runs in four innings.
Hunter Scholma (Allendale, Mich./Allendale) and Paplawsky led Calvin at the plate with two hits apiece.
Game 2
Adrian scored seven times in the first inning and never looked back on the way to an 11-5 win in game two.
Tschirhart put the Knights on the board in the opening inning with an RBI-single that scored
Gabe Bonemer (Okemos, Mich./Okemos), but the Bulldogs answered with seven runs on only one hit in the bottom half of the inning thanks to two Calvin errors and six walks by starting pitcher
Noah Etnyre (Northville, Mich./Plymouth Christian Academy).
The Knights cut into the deficit two innings later with four runs in the third inning, as
Landen Mikula (St. Johns, Mich./St. Johns),
Noah Swope (Portage, Mich./Portage Central) and
Parker Seth (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian) each hit RBI-singles to cut the deficit to 7-5.
The Bulldogs were able to slow down the Knights' line-up the rest of the way, however, and added two runs in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth on the way to earning the 11-5 win.
Calvin out-hit Adrian 10-6 in the game, but four defensive errors and nine walks helped lead to six unearned runs. Etnyre fell to 1-1 on the season after allowing six runs (three earned) in 0.2 innings.
Bonemer led Calvin with three hits while Tschirhart drove in two runs and Mikula added two hits.
NEXT UP: Calvin baseball will return to action tomorrow (Saturday, April 4) when it finishes its three-game series against Adrian with a single game that has been moved to Farmers Insurance Athletic Complex on the campus of Davenport University. First pitch for that game is scheduled for 4:00 PM.
