BOX SCORE

ANDERSON, Ind. -- Anderson University took a one-half game lead in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference baseball standings with a 6-4 home victory over Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on Tuesday afternoon.

The Ravens scored five runs in the second inning and withstood a Rose-Hulman charge that featured one run in the fifth, two in the seventh and one in the ninth.  Anderson improved to 25-11 overall and 16-8 in HCAC play, one-half game of Rose-Hulman (22-13, 15-8 HCAC).

Rose-Hulman needs one win in this weekend's series at Mount St. Joseph to clinch a bid to the HCAC Tournament, and needs three wins plus a loss by Anderson to earn the top seed and hosting rights for the tourney.  Earlham and Manchester are also in contention for tournament hosting rights.

Junior Kody Alayon, junior Caleb Kissel, sophomore Zach Trusk and junior Donnie Waters led the Rose-Hulman offense with two hits each.  Alayon had two singles and scored once, while Kissel contributed a single and a double with one RBI.  Trusk and Waters had two singles each. 

Senior Ben Menich led Rose-Hulman's pitching effort with five innings out of the bullpen, no earned runs allowed and two strikeouts.

Austin Young, Jake Craft and Devon Traylor had two hits each for Anderson.  Brian Page scattered nine hits over 6.2 innings of work to earn the win and improve to 4-1 on the season.  Nicholas Nunez pitched the final inning to earn his fourth save.

Rose-Hulman hosts DePauw in a non-conference game at Art Nehf Field on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.  This weekend, the Fightin' Engineers travel to Mount St. Joseph for a three-game series at Midland Field in Batavia, Ohio, starting Saturday.  The series includes a Saturday doubleheader at 2 p.m. and a single game on Sunday at noon.