BASEBALL

It wasn’t how the HU baseball team envisioned things going Friday afternoon at Forest Glen as they dropped a pair, 10-6, 17-4, to Indiana Wesleyan. The losses drop Huntington (29-14, 21-9) into third place in the CL regular season standings while the Wildcats (29-16-1, 24-8) jump into the No. 2 spot.

It took extra innings to decide game one. The marathon was littered with mighty swings with none mightier than Evan Salmon’s grand slam in the top of the 11th that lifted the guests over the Foresters. It was the left fielder’s second homer of the contest as he accounted for half of his team’s offense with just two swings of the bat.

IWU finished with five dingers with all but one of their runs coming by way of the long ball.

Langston Ginder was the only Forester to go yard, but it was one to be remembered. With bases loaded, he unleashed a rocket that sailed well beyond the right field fence for the game’s first grand slam in the seventh that turned HU’s 5-2 deficit into a 6-5 advantage.

Unfortunately the Wildcats’ equalizer was immediate as lead-off Nick Wiley blistered his second pitch out of the park to knot things up at 6-6. It was the game’s second deadlock with the first coming in the opening frame when Matt Wolff singled in a run to counter Salmon’s first homer in the top of the inning.

The guests finished with nine hits to HU’s seven. Satchell Wilson and Wolff each posted two hits and an RBI.

Bryce Deckman was charged with the loss. He threw 3.2 innings and gave up the grand slam and three walks while striking out four.

Wesleyan picked up where they left off in game one by sending one deep for a two-run homer in their opening at-bat of the nightcap on the way to bolting out to a 4-0 lead. Huntington got two back in the third on a stand-up RBI-double by Langston Ginder.

IWU touched home four more times before Wilson and Max Moser each singled in runs in the sixth. No one was prepared for what was to come next in final frame. The guests sifted through three HU pitchers, pounded out six hits and took advantage of a handful of walks. It added up to nine runs to make for the blowout.

Starting pitcher Joey Butz was pegged with the loss. He tossed the first three frames and gave up two hits, five runs and two walks while striking out four.

Huntington has a few days off before hosting Goshen on Monday for a twin bill.