LIVE STATS
TOURNAMENT NOTES
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology baseball team travels to Anderson University for the three-day Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament starting Thursday.
Rose-Hulman has earned the No. 2 seed for the event after completing the regular season with a 25-14 record and a 17-9 mark in HCAC play. The Fightin' Engineers open HCAC Tournament play against No. 3 seeded Manchester University (24-13, 17-10) on Thursday at noon.
The four-team double elimination tournament also includes top-seeded Anderson (28-11, 19-8) and No. 4 seeded Earlham (26-12, 15-11). Rose-Hulman won the 2014 HCAC Tournament and later advanced to the NCAA Central Regional Championship Round, while Manchester won the regular season championship last year and Anderson won this year's crown. Earlham is making its first appearance in the HCAC Tournament.
Junior Donnie Waters leads the Rose-Hulman offense with a .392 batting average on 51 hits with seven doubles and two home runs. Sophomore Kevin Jendra has a .356 average, and junior Caleb Kissel stands at .327 with eight doubles, one triple and two home runs. Junior Kody Alayon is also over the .300 mark at .305 with 43 hits, 29 runs scored and 16 stolen bases.
Rose-Hulman's has relied on a pitching staff ranked No. 1 in the HCAC and in the national top 20 in lowest earned run average (2.84) for much of its success this season. The weekend starting rotation has included Karson Nixon (5-1, 0.85), R.J. Carroll (5-2, 2.98) and Andrew Stull (4-5, 2.66).
The pitching staff has also seen starts from Joey Callahan (4-4, 4.32), Ben Menich (1-1, 3.54) and Daniel Sutherland (1-0, 6.46). Junior Alec McNally leads the bullpen with a 3-1 record, a 0.49 earned run average and six saves in 14 appearances.
Manchester won the 2013 HCAC regular season title and boasts perhaps the league's top offense with a .327 batting average, 83 double and 29 home runs. Jordan Nieman leads the offense at .414 with eight doubles, six triples and 11 home runs. The Spartans pitching staff has a 5.20 earned run average with 196 strikeouts in 327 innings of work.
The double elimination tournament will continue Friday and Saturday at Anderson. The complete schedule is below.
HCAC BASEBALL TOURNAMENT
(at Anderson University)
Thursday, May 7
Game 1 - #2 Rose-Hulman vs. #3 Manchester, Noon - LIVE STATS
Game 2 - #1 Anderson vs. #4 Earlham, 3:30 p.m. - LIVE STATS
Friday, May 8
Game 3 - G1 Winner vs. G2 Winner, 9:30 a.m.
Game 4 - G1 Loser vs. G2 Loser, 12:30 p.m.
Game 5 - G4 Winner vs. G3 Loser, 4 p.m.
Saturday, May 9
Game 6 - G3 Winner vs. G5 Winner, Noon
Game 7 - Repeat of Game 6 (if needed), 3:30 p.m.
