ADRIAN, Mich. -- It was a battle on Saturday during the MIAA doubleheader between the Adrian College baseball team and the Alma College Scots. The Bulldogs came away with a pair of victories in a 7-5 win in game one and an 8-6 win in game two. The 7-5 victory in game one was the 750th career win for head coach Craig Rainey who is in his 29th season as head coach at Adrian College.
GAME 1 RECAP
Alma jumped on the board first with a run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the first. The Bulldogs went on to respond with three runs in the bottom half of the inning to take a 3-1 lead.
Ryan Davis doubled in a run to tie the game 1-1 before
Kevin Cardentey singled in a pair to lead 3-1. The teams held each other scoreless until the sixth inning when Alma tied the game on a 2-RBI double followed by a RBI ground out to lead 4-3. In the bottom of the sixth, Adrian came back and and scored a pair of unearned runs on a sac bunt from
Don Goodes who ended up reaching third on an error. In the seventh,
Ty Peck singled in a run to lead 6-4.
In the eighth, Alma cut back into the lead on a solo home run, but the Bulldogs were able to get out of the inning and get the run back in the bottom of the eighth on a sacrifice fly from
AJ Miranda.
Gage Ricker got the win in relief for the Bulldogs as he moves to 1-0 on the season.
Joe Toth went 5.1 innings in his start allowing four runs on three hits with seven strikeouts.
Jacob Hanoian picked up his fifth save of the season with a scoreless ninth inning.
GAME 2 RECAP
Just like they did in game one, Alma jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Alma then went up 2-0 in the top of the third on a sacrifice fly, but the Bulldogs woke up the bats in the bottom of the inning. Miranda doubled in a run to put the Bulldogs on the board followed by a RBI single from
Dylan Johnson and a single from
Aaron Valentine which resulted in a run scoring on an error by the right fielder. In the fourth inning, the Bulldogs added on to its 3-2 lead with a double from Peck to drive home
Andrew Atherton followed by a sacrifice fly from Goodes and a RBI ground out from Davis to lead 6-2.
Alma scored a pair in the sixth inning to make it a 6-5 game, but Davis doubled in a run followed by a run scoring on a fielder's choice. Alma scored a run in the seventh, but could draw closer to the Adrian lead the rest of the way. In the top of the ninth, Hanoian came on to get the save and got himself into a bases loaded jam. With one out in the inning, Hanoian fielded a comebacker to the mound threw home for the force out before Johnson threw to first to finish the double play and win the game.
Hanoian picked up his sixth save of the season and the 12th of his career to sit one save behind the Adrian baseball career save record of 13 set by Chris Dubbs from the year of 1994-97.
Maxwell Denny got the start in game two lasting only three innings allowing two runs on four hits.
Luc St. Antoine moved to 3-0 on the season with the win in relief after throwing three innings allowing three runs on three hits with three strikeouts.
THE MIAA STANDINGS
The Bulldogs sit at 11-7 in MIAA play after the two wins over Alma which currently sits in third in the conference. Hope has locked up the No. 1 seed for the MIAA Tournament with the only other team the Bulldogs trail is Kalamazoo who has a pair of MIAA games on Tuesday with Alma before going up against Adrian for the No. 2 seed.
UP NEXT
The Bulldogs will have back-to-back days of midweek games as they host Defiance College on Tuesday night at 6:00 PM before hosting Otterbein University in a pair of seven inning games on Wednesday, May 4. After the nonconference games during the week, the Bulldogs will host the Hornets in a doubleheader on Saturday followed by a single game on the road on Sunday to end the regular season.
