ADRIAN, Mich. - The freshman and the senior both came up clutch on Wednesday as the Adrian College baseball team swept the crosstown Siena Heights University Saints by the scores of 2-0 and 5-4. The Bulldogs are now 22-6 overall and winners of 10 straight and six straight in the series against the Saints.
Freshman pitcher Rylie Robinson from nearby Clinton delivered his first collegiate complete game shutout in the 2-0 game one win. Robinson allowed six hits over seven innings and kept his pitch count down to 87 by hitting his spots in the strike zone (59 strikes). Robinson did not walk a batter until the seventh inning in his second start of the season and struck out five improving to 2-1 overall with a 0.55 ERA.
The Adrian bats were cold in game one with just two hits, but they manufactured a pair of runs and relied on the right arm of Robinson. AC got a run in the third inning off an unearned run and the legs of Andrew DeLuca. DeLuca reached on a one-out error by Billy Salazar and promptly stole second and third base off starter Ryan Grant. Senior Chris Kerekes then hit a sacrifice fly on a 1-2 pitch to right field to give AC a 1-0 lead.
Adrian added another run in the bottom of the sixth to give Robinson a little cushion. Kerekes got the engine moving with a leadoff bunt single and Cody Meyer bunted him over to second. Brian Bilius drew a four-pitch walk to set up a force at the bases. Adrian got another unearned run when a grounder by Nate Sarkissian was thrown wild to first base and Kerekes came around to score from second for a 2-0 lead.
DeLuca's two steals in the third give him a team-high 14 steals this season. Kerekes' sacrifice fly in the fourth was his first of the season. Bilius stole his sixth base of the season in the fourth inning. Sarkissian had the other hit which was a single to left to leadoff with second inning.
Siena Heights jumped all over Brent Greenwood with four runs in the first inning of game two, but the big freshman righty settled down and pitched the next five innings allowing just one hit after giving up four hits in the first. The first five batters reached in the opening frame for the Saints. Cory Lehman had an RBI double and Alec Duncan had a bloop RBI single to left to give SHU a 2-0 lead. Greenwood got a double play off the bat of Ryan Popma to look like the damage would be limited. The next batter Bryan Mullen hit a grounder to second baseman Garrett Green, but the sophomore misplayed it allowing two unearned runs to score and give the Saints a 4-0 lead.
Adrian just started to chip away at the lead with single runs in the first, third and fifth innings. Bilius recorded his 100th career RBI in the first with a one-out single up the middle. Bilius came through again in the third with another one-out RBI single with this one going to right field to make it 4-2.
DeLuca singled to start the fifth and stole second before advancing to third on a wild pitch. Kerekes continued his great game with an RBI single up the middle to cut the lead to one. Kerekes was 3-for-3 with his first double of the season to compliment three runs and a walk in the nightcap from the leadoff spot.
Greenwood kept his team in the game through the middle innings allowing just one hit while allowing no walks with four strikeouts in a no-decision. Lucas Willitzer entered in the seventh inning and gave up a single before striking out a batter. Vincent Webb entered the game as Siena Heights' third pitcher of the game in the top of the sixth, but could not hold the lead in the seventh.
Kerekes had a tough at-bat and put a ground-rule double down the right field line to lead off the threat. Meyer gave himself up with a sacrifice bunt, his seventh of the season, to move Kerekes to third with one out. Bilius went down 1-2 in the count but served a ball into right for his third RBI of the game to tie things at 4-4. Bilius stole second with two outs after a Sarkissian flyout and put himself into position for a game-winning hit. Jake Cappelletty did not have a hit in five at-bats on the day, but saved the best for last taking a 1-2 pitch up the middle allowing Bilius to score from second with the game-winning run.
Bilius upped his season average to .402 with three hits in game two. Willitzer got the win for his first as a Bulldog. He has a 1-0 record with a 1.86 ERA in 9.2 innings this season. The Bulldogs are back to MIAA play with a doubleheader against Hope College on Friday at 2:00 PM from Nicolay Field. The Flying Dutchmen are in second place in the conference trailing the Bulldogs by six games in the standings.
