Baseball splits WHAC opener with Lourdes on Saturday

(Wixom, MI) - The Rochester Christian Baseball team kicked off its Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) schedule on Saturday, taking on the Lourdes Gray Wolves in a doubleheader. The Warriors' Lance Jones pitched six shutout innings in game one, as RCU earned its first WHAC win of the season, while Lourdes took hold of game 2 early on, as the two teams split the WHAC opener. 

GAME 1 - ROCHESTER CHRISTIAN 4, LOURDES 0

Lance Jones (1-0) pitched the first six innings in the game, allowing five hits with six strikeouts

Neither team was able to get anything on the board for the first inning and a half, until the bottom of the second, with Issander Vega hitting a home run to left field. 

The top of the third inning would see Lourdes load the bases after getting two out, but crafty pitching from Lance Jones would get out of the inning unscathed. The fourth and top of the fifth inning would see both pitchers combine for seven strikeouts. 

Nathaniel Crane and Dakota Shafer aided the RCU offense, with Crane reaching on a fielding error, scoring Ryder Zeiman, and Shafer hitting Crane home. Beau Falkenhagen led off the sixth inning with a deep home run to left field. 

Landon Fahey would pitch in the final half inning and get a strikeout and then a double play to end the game

GAME 2 - LOURDES 17, ROCHESTER CHRISTIAN 7

Dakota Shafer (2-1) opened the game with two innings pitched, with seven runs (three earned) on seven hits.

Both teams grabbed runs in each of the first three innings, with Lourdes kicking off the first by hitting an RBI single, while Aiden Alspaugh hit a no-doubt two-run home run to left field, making it 2-1 following the first. 

In the second, the Gray Wolves took advantage of a leadoff hit and a pair of sacrifice bunts to score on a sacrifice fly. Beau Falkenhagen started the bottom of the seventh with a double and would come around to score on a Parker Lassner single to regain the lead. The next inning saw Lourdes put up six runs and take the lead for good, piecing together a couple of hits as well as taking advantage of multiple RCU errors. The Warriors put up two runs with a bases-loaded walk by Beau Falkenhagen, and after Matthew Shakotko grounded into a double play. 

Lourdes continued their scoring with five runs in the fourth and fifth innings, including a two-run home run. In the bottom of the fifth, Jayden Peterson tripled home Parker Lassner and Matthew Shakotko, making a 13-7 deficit. 

Over the final four innings, Lourdes tacked on another four runs, making a 17-7 win for the Gray Wolves. 

Tryce Davis came in following Shafer with two innings, allowing four runs (one earned) with five hits and a pair of strikeouts. Louis Frontero pitched an inning of relief with two runs on two hits and a strikeout. Connor Foreman pitched a trio of innings with two runs on two hits, with Keaton Diserens pitching the ninth inning with two runs on one hit with a strikeout. 

UP NEXT

The Warriors will take on the Warriors of Indiana Tech tomorrow, March 15 at the UWM Field in Utica, Michigan, for a doubleheader beginning at 3 PM.