BASEBALL

The Huntington baseball team endured a tough start to their final regular season series on Thursday, falling to Mount Vernon Nazarene in both ends of the doubleheader, 8-5 and 6-2, at Cougar Field.

Defensive miscues proved costly in the opener, as the Foresters committed four errors that led to five unearned runs. Offensively, four of Huntington’s five hits all left the yard, accounting for all five of their runs.

Ryne Wheeler led the power surge with two home runs, his first in the fifth and another in the ninth. Bryce Deckman also went deep in the fifth, and Braden Kauffman added a two-run blast in the sixth.

After falling behind 4-0 through the first four frames, HU clawed back to tie it 4-4 by the sixth. But the Cougars broke things open with a four-run eighth, capitalizing on a key error during a rough relief outing by freshman Brady Gallo. Gallo surrendered four runs, two earned, on four hits and a walk in just two-thirds of an inning to be tagged with the loss.

The Foresters struck first in the nightcap thanks to Zach Pelletier’s RBI-groundout in the first inning, but offense proved hard to come by for the remainder of the game. Pelletier drove in Huntington’s only other run with a single to center in the sixth. Meanwhile, MVNU countered HU’s first run by rounding the bases four times in the bottom of the first to nab a lead they didn’t let go of.

MVNU matched HU’s four hits but executed timely small ball and took advantage of their opportunities, scoring twice more in the sixth to pull away. Starter Graham Kollen was tagged with the loss, allowing six runs, five earned, on four hits and four walks while striking out seven.

With the pair of losses, Huntington now sits at 23-23 overall and 17-17 in Crossroads League play. Due to inclement weather, the second doubleheader of the series, originally scheduled for Friday, has been postponed to Saturday.