BASEBALL

The HU baseball team outlasted Bethel, 7-6, Friday afternoon at Forest Glen before being downed by their guests 10-7 in game two.

It was Owen Imel’s bomb over the right field fence in the bottom of the eighth, his first homer as a Forester, that capped off HU’s impressive come-from-behind win in the opener.

The journey to the hosts’ victory started in the third when they got back three of the four runs they had given up in the first. With bases loaded, Cam Clarkson got beaned with the next run coming by way of a wild pitch. The inning later saw Dylan Rost post an RBI-ground out while earlier in the frame, HU had taken advantage of a base on balls and hit batter to spearhead the full house.

The 4-3 difference didn’t last too long with the fifth proving a busy frame. After BU scored twice in their at-bat, Beldon Glasgow went yard in the home half of the inning for a 6-4 disparity. Bethel’s bats went quiet the rest of the contest while Frame’s crew found a way to get the job done offensively for their vitalizing finish.

With runners on first and second, a Glasgow single turned into a series of unfortunate events for the guests as a pair of errors ended up allowing two Foresters to touch home to even things up at 6-6. As the story goes, Imel’s dinger was not only the go-ahead run but proved the game-winner with Keegan Shovlain grabbing the win on the bump having made his appearance in the ninth.

The junior transfer inherited a runner on first but proceeded to punch out the first batter he faced and then worked a line out and fly out to end the game.

Glasgow led the Foresters with his two run-scoring at-bats for two hits and two RBI. As a team, HU finished with six hits to Bethel’s seven.

After the Foresters plated a run on a Pilot error in the first, the guests took charge of the nightcap starting in the second when they scored three times. Despite being outscored by Frame’s crew 4-3 over the next three innings, they never gave up the lead and then put the finishing touches on the night by cashing in on five of their 13 hits to manufacture a four-run sixth.

Aside from Glasgow’s two-run blast, his second dinger of the series, and Deklan Thompson’s RBI-single, both in the fifth, HU played a little small ball to score the rest of their runs. Kade Flores cruised home on a passed ball in the third and walked in a run in the sixth with Zach Pelletier’s run-scoring ground out in the seventh rounding out Huntington’s scoring.

Grant Simmons was tagged with the loss having given up six hits, five runs and three walks while fanning five in the 3.1 innings he occupied the mound.

The Foresters (9-15, 4-10) return to Forest Glen tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. for another twin bill with Bethel (10-12, 5-9).