Baseball downed in doubleheader against #RV Indiana Tech

(Utica, MI) - The Rochester Christian baseball team would see a battle of the Warriors as they went up against Indiana Tech. Despite a late comeback attempt in game #1, Indiana Tech would walk away with a 7-5 victory, before earning a 20-4 win in game #2. 

GAME 1 - INDIANA TECH 7, ROCHESTER CHRISTIAN 5

Matthew Redmond (2-3) would earn the loss on the mound for Rochester Christian. Redmond would pitch five innings, allowing six runs (three earned) on six hits with three strikeouts. 

After a quick 1-2-3 inning in both the top and bottom of the first, IIT was able to take advantage of RCU errors to score two unearned runs. 

RCU got their first hit of the game in the fourth inning off the bat of Aiden Alspaugh on a single to right field. Indiana Tech came up to bat in the fifth inning and increased their lead with an RBI double and an RBI single, making it a 6-0 game. They tacked on one more insurance run in the sixth off an error. 

Rochester Christian would start to climb back in the game in the bottom of the sixth with Jayden Peterson kicking off the inning with a double and moving to third on an out. Nathaniel Crane would hit an RBI single to score RCU's first run. Aiden Alspaugh and Dakota Shafer would load the bases with a single and walk, respectively, as Beau Falkenhagen would come up to bat with bases loaded and send a deep shot out to left center field for a grand slam, drawing RCu to within a pair of runs. 

RCU would threaten in the bottom of the seventh inning with Matthew Shakotko hitting a single and Ryder Zeiman coming to pinch run and eventually being stranded on third to end the game. 

Jeffrey Preston would come in to start the sixth inning, allowing one unearned run with a pair of strikeouts. Landon Fahey closed out the game with the final inning pitched. 

GAME 2 - INDIANA TECH 20, ROCHESTER CHRISTIAN 4

Matthew Shakotko (1-4) took the loss, pitching two-thirds of an inning, allowing seven hits. 

The Indiana Tech bats got hot quickly, right away in the first inning with three home runs, including a grand slam, making it 10-0 before RCU got up to bat. The bottom half of the inning saw Dakota Shafer hit an RBI single, scoring Cael Kuzinski, and then Aiden Alspuagh scored on a wild pitch. 

RCU would score a third run in the bottom of the second inning, with Parker Lassner coming around to score on a Cael Kuzinski double down the left field line. IIT picked up a trio of runs as they nearly hit for the cycle in the inning with a single, double, and a triple. Dakota Shafer would hit an RBI double in the bottom half of the inning to score Aiden Alspaugh. 

Indiana Tech controlled the rest of the game, scoring seven runs over the next three innings, to make it a 20-4 game that would end in a shortened game. 

Louis Frontero and Gavin Swigart combined for two innings of work, pitching 1.1 and .2 innings, respectively, and each earned a strikeout. Joseph Arends pitched 2.1 innings, getting a strikeout, and Christian Rivera closed out the final two innings with a pair of strikeouts. 

UP NEXT

The Warriors will next head to Grand Rapids, Michigan, for a doubleheader against the Cornerstone Golden Eagles on March 21, starting at 1 PM.