BASEBALL

Austin Pritchard’s walk-off double in the bottom of the ninth lifted the #RV HU baseball team to a 6-5 win over Saint Francis Monday night under the lights at Forest Glen to complete the series sweep over the Cougars.

It marked Huntington’s third league sweep of the year, the others against Spring Arbor and Mount Vernon. With just the Indiana Wesleyan series remaining in the CL regular season, the Foresters (24-11) continue to eye a conference championship as they remain at the No. 1 spot in the standings with an 18-6 league record, 2.5 games ahead of Mount Vernon and 3.5 games ahead of Marian.

For USF, they drop to 13-34 overall, 7-17 in Crossroads League action. The Cougars, sitting in ninth, need to move up in the standings if they hope to make postseason play. They host Taylor for a three-game series over the weekend.

After giving up two runs to USF in the top of the first, the Foresters got one back in their side thanks to Pritchard. Not only did he wrap up the contest with his blast to the left field warning track, but the first baseman also got his team on the board with an RBI-fielder’s choice that allowed Donovan Clark, who led off with a double, advanced to third on Daniel Lichty’s sac bunt, to cruise home for a 2-1 battle after just one inning of play.

Both teams scored again in the fifth. Clark made his second trip around the bases, this time by way of Lichty’s triple to deep right-center. The score would remain 3-2 until the Foresters finally made a move in the eighth. Jacob Hansen doubled in a run to kick things off after which Satchell Wilson cranked one over the right field fence for a two-run dinger to shoot his team in front 5-3.

The Cougars, who had managed just one hit since the fifth, got their sticks going again to fire back in the top of the ninth. After a walk, single and passed ball put two runners in scoring position, Tyler Prince delivered with a rocket to deep center to drive in both runs and knot things up at 5s.

As has been the case all season, the Foresters didn’t hang their heads but instead went right back at it. After Gustavo Bonilla opened up with a base on balls, HU’s seventh walk of the contest, things looked a little bleak as Anthony Miller sat down HU’s next two batters on strikes. However, Pritchard wasn’t fazed. Not only staring at two outs, the junior transfer was also behind in the count 1-2 but still found a way to get ahold of one that allowed courtesy runner Nick Davitt to easily score and clear the dugout in celebration.

Pritchard finished with two hits and two RBI. Clark also posted a pair of hits. As a team, Huntington collected eight hits, as did their visitors.

Mason Shinabery tossed the final three frames to earn the win on the mound by giving up three hits, two runs and two walks. All nine of the outs he worked were by way of a strikeout, fanning five swinging and four looking.

HU road trips to Indiana Wesleyan over the weekend for a single nine on Friday and a doubleheader on Saturday.