BASEBALL

The #RV Forester baseball team clinched at least a piece of the Crossroads League regular season title Friday night with its 7-2 win over Indiana Wesleyan in game one of a twin bill at Wildcat Field. It’s the program’s 24th regular season conference championship, the ninth under Coach Mike Frame.

Not only does tonight’s W ensure the No. 1 seed in the Crossroads League tournament, it also lands HU the league’s first automatic bid to the 2019 NAIA National Tournament. It will be the Foresters fourth trip to the big stage, all under Frame’s tutelage.

After playing to a 2-2 deadlock through the first three frames, Adam Roser gave his team a permanent lead in the top of the fifth when he singled in Donovan Clark, who had led off with a double, for a 3-2 HU nod. While it proved the game-winner, the Foresters left no doubt they were headed for the win by piling on four more runs in their last at bat for a convincing ending.

Clark got things started for HU again in the seventh with an infield single and then came around to score, along with Daniel Lichty, on Adrien Perez’s RBI-double down the left field line. Gustavo Bonilla then drove in Perez and Satchell Wilson, who was intentionally walked, with a shot to right to give his team plenty of breathing room.

While the four-run cushion was welcomed, the Foresters had plenty of confidence in their ace Alex McCutcheon to get the job done on the mound. He didn’t disappoint. After working a fielder’s choice groundout for the first out, he struck out the final two batters of the seventh to wrap up the win.

McCutcheon finished with 13 strikeouts while giving up just three hits, a two-run dinger and two walks for the complete-game win.

While IWU’s only offense was Brady West’s mighty swing in the third, it came on the heels of Ian McCutcheon’s RBI-single in the second and Roser’s RBI-bunt in the third to force the game’s only tie after which the Foresters took control.

The nine-inning nightcap favored the Wildcats 7-4. IWU pulled ahead early to force their visitors to play catch up the rest of the night. Down 3-0, HU got a much-needed lift from Austin Pritchard who blasted his first pitch over the right field fence for a two-run homer.

Facing another three-run deficit heading into the fifth, HU plated two more runs, the first on a wild pitch and the second on Pritchard’s RBI-groundout, to cut the lead to one at 5-4. That was it for Frame’s crew while the Wildcats added a few insurance runs to make for the 7-4 final.

Caleb Landrum was tagged with the loss. He threw the first 3.1 innings to give up nine hits, five runs and two walks while striking out one.

Clark logged his team’s only stolen base of the evening in game two to bring HU’s total on the year to 95 which ties the program record for steals in a season, a record that dates back to 2011.

The Foresters (25-12, 19-7) are back at Wildcat Field tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. for a single nine with IWU (21-27, 15-11).