BASEBALL

Thursday afternoon’s 4-2 win at Forest Glen over Grace marked a significant milestone for Coach Mike Frame as it proved the 900th win of his coaching career. The victory was the first of two for the Huntington baseball team as they shutout their visitors 7-0 in the nightcap.

Coach Frame headed into this season ranked tenth in total wins among all active NAIA baseball coaches.

The opener saw Matt Wolff go long in the second to kick off the day’s scoring only to have the Lancers (10-13, 4-6) knot things up in their next at bat. HU was quick to respond in their half of the inning. Daniel Lichty doubled in a run and then made his way home on a three-bagger by Langston Ginder for a 3-1 HU lead.

Things went quiet the next few frames until Grace pushed a run across in the seventh but a little small ball by the hosts in the eighth bumped their lead back to two to make for the 4-2 final. After Lichty singled up the middle, was bunted to second and scampered to third on a passed ball, he eventually snuck home when the Lancers unsuccessfully tried to throw out Ginder stealing second.

Camden Dice threw the first seven innings, giving up eight hits, two runs and a walk while striking out one, to earn the win on the bump. After reliever Graham Kollen threw the next 1.2 frames, Isaac Horton struck out Isaiah Herbster for the final out to earn his third save of the year.

Pitching continued to be HU’s strong suit in the nightcap with Tyler Papenbrock tossing a dandy to notch the complete-game shutout. In seven innings of work, the rookie southpaw needed just 89 pitches to get the job done. He struck out six, didn’t give up a walk and surrendered just four hits.

The Foresters tapped into three of their nine hits in the third to jump out to a 4-0 lead. With bases loaded, Ginder was hit by a pitch to push HU’s first run across home plate. In the process of Satchell Wilson drawing a base on balls, Huntington scored again on a wild pitch. The next two runs came by more honestly on a run-scoring single by Jarret Gray and fielder’s choice by Dice.

Dice was at it again in the fifth, driving in another run compliments of a double to right. Frame’s crew added a second run in the inning before Gray put the finishing touches on the night with an RBI-single in the sixth. He finished with three hits and two RBI. Dice also racked up two RBI while Noah Comstock finished with a pair of hits.

With these wins, Huntington improves to 8-10 overall, 6-4 in league play. HU wraps up their series with Grace on Saturday with opening pitch slated for 1:00 p.m.