BASEBALL

The Forester baseball team made the short trip to Miller Field in Winona Lake Monday afternoon where they posted an impressive 12-2 win to open up their doubleheader at Grace before suffering a 10-9 loss in walk-off fashion in the nightcap. The Lancers (9-12, 5-7) got the best of HU on Friday to win the series 2-1.

Game one was a lopsided affair as HU’s bats were on point. The Foresters pounded out ten hits with Daniel Lichty and Jake Hansen accounting for half of them. The duo also combined to drive in nine of the 11 runs.

Huntington began their scoring frenzy in the third. With bases loaded, Lichty singled down the left field line to knock in the game’s first two runs. Two batters later, Hansen chased starting pitcher Logan Swartzentruber off the mound, who was eventually charged with the loss, when he doubled in another pair of runs for a 4-0 lead.

The fourth was a déjà vu of the third as Lichty and Hansen were back at it again by driving in two runs apiece with a single and double respectively. Austin Pritchard also got in on the action with a run-scoring base poke. The seventh was bonus with Collin Landrum doubling in a run and then scoring on a wild pitch after which Lichty wrapping things up with a run-scoring single for his fifth RBI of the afternoon.

The Lancers snuck in two runs in the bottom of the third for what was otherwise a quiet offensive day for the Lancers in large part due to Alex McCutcheon’s work on the mound.

The junior hurler went the distance to give up four hits, two runs, only one of which was earned, and a walk while fanning eight for the complete-game W, his sixth of the year.

The nightcap was a slugfest with both teams hitting for season-highs. Behind three base pokes from Jarrett Gray, HU posted 15 hits, seven for extra bases. Four other Foresters, Landrum, Lichty, Pritchard and Satchell Wilson, added two hits each. The Lancers recorded a season-tying 18 hits which included three long balls.

It was a see saw affair. After HU plated three runs in their first at bat, Grace took charge to rack up five in their half of the frame. They would go on to build a 7-5 lead after four innings of play. Frame’s crew registered the next four runs to enjoy a 9-7 advantage with two frames to go but unfortunately the hosts had the last say.

After finding home once in the eighth, the Lancers strung together four straight singles with two outs in the ninth including Branden Scott’s walk-off poke into shallow right for the dramatic ending.

After Mason Shinabery and Brent Turner combined to toss the first five frames, Caleb Landrum finished up by handing out seven hits, three runs and one walk while striking out two to be charged with the loss.

Wilson proved most productive for Huntington offensively. After doubling in a run in the first, the freshman shortstop sent one out of the park in the third for his second collegiate dinger. Gray finished with a pair of RBI-hits, a single in the fifth and double in the seventh. Other Foresters to drive in a run included Pritchard, Ian McCutcheon and Lichty.

Next up for the Foresters (12-9, 8-4) is a doubleheader at Forest Glen on Wednesday against Cleary.