BASEBALL

The Forester baseball team opened its series with Bethel College Friday afternoon with a 7-6 walk-off win at Forest Glen when Jamar Weaver motored home on a passed ball in the bottom of the ninth. The win snaps a three-game losing skid as HU improves to 14-16 overall, 12-4 in league play.

It’s a race to the finish in the league standings. With just over a week of regular season remaining, the Foresters are fighting for the top spot with IWU and Taylor. The Foresters have the fewest league losses among the three teams but have played two fewer games than Taylor and four fewer than the Wildcats.

Not surprising, every contest from here on out matters and tonight’s win against the Pilots was a testament to HU’s grit and urgency to get the job done. Frame’s crew found themselves in a 5-1 hole after the first frame and had to spend the rest of the evening digging their way out.

The climb to get back in it was slow and methodical as HU scored twice in the fourth, another in the sixth as did the Pilots, and then plated two more in the seventh to setup the dramatic finish.

With the game knotted up at 6-6 heading into the ninth, the Pilots landed a runner on second representing the go ahead run with just one out. However, HU reliever Alex McCutcheon wasn’t having it. The sophomore southpaw fanned Sean Luzon and lured Ryan Paige to fly out to work his way out of the pinch and give his team one last shot. And they didn’t disappoint.

Weaver started things off by singling to left. Adam Roser moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt and then Pilot pitcher Eric Kelver handed out a pair of free passes, the first intentional, on either side of a pop up to load the bases and set up Weaver’s race to home plate on a passed ball.

McCutcheon earned the win on the mound by holding the visitors hitless and scoreless over the final two frames. Ryan Bethel spent the first 5.1 innings on the bump for the no decision. Trent Lawson offered 1.2 innings of relief before McCutcheon wrapped things up.

The Foresters sifted through five Pilot pitchers to log ten hits and draw eight walks. Weaver came up big for his team. In addition to his sac fly to drive in HU’s first run, the senior second baseman posted two hits and scored three times.

Nick Davit also collected two hits, both RBI-base pokes. Adam Roser added a hit and two RBI while Adrian Perez tallied an RBI with a run-scoring single in the sixth.

HU will do battle with the Pilots (12-23, 4-15) again tomorrow for a doubleheader beginning at 3PM.