BASEBALL

It was the tale of two halves for the Huntington baseball team Saturday afternoon at Forest Glen Park. After run-ruling Grace in seven, 19-3, in the day’s first game, the Foresters suffered a 4-3 loss to their guests in an eight-inning nightcap.

Frame’s crew went 16-for-34 from the plate in the opener to overwhelm the Lancers. In addition to pounding the ball to the tune of double-digit hits, the Foresters also drew eight walks in their slaughter of GC. Jordan Malott was dangerous every time he stepped up to the plate. The sophomore first baseman went 4-for-4 which included a three-run dinger and two run-scoring doubles. He piled up six RBI and scored four times.

Dylan Rost was also perfect at the plate with four base pokes including a two-run two-bagger in the fourth. Doubles were plentiful as Matt Wolff also doubled in a pair of runs in HU’s next at bat. It was a busy fifth as Malott’s homer also came in the frame after which Ryne Wheeler followed suit with a mighty swing that plated another three runs. Wheeler also logged a sacrifice fly in the second on his way to four RBI.

These four players accounted for 14 of their team’s 19 runs.

Tyler Papenbrock had an impressive outing on the bump with the only glitch a three-run homer at the bat of Grant Hartley in the sixth. The junior southpaw went the distance for the complete-game win. In seven innings of work, he gave up five hits, three runs and two walks while striking out six.

Unfortunately, the nightcap went a drastically different direction. It was radio silence for both teams through the first five frames. The hosts finally broke the silence in the sixth. A two-out rally saw four straight hits with Wolff, Malott and Cam Clarkson each posting a run-scoring base smack for a 3-0 ball game.

The Lancers saved their best for last, taking advantage of an HU throwing error while tapping into four of their five hits in the top of the seventh to come up with three unanswered runs and knot things up at 3-3. Huntington was poised to reclaim the lead in the home half of the frame with two on and only one out. Unfortunately GC reliever Owen Kirchenstein got out of the jam to extend the game an extra inning where the Lancers prevailed.

Graham Kollen was tagged with the loss having spent the first 7.1 innings on the mound where he gave up five hits, four runs and two walks while striking out six.

Huntington (23-15, 17-9) is back in action again on Monday to host Grace again at 3:00 p.m.