ANDERSON GAME BOX SCORE / PHOTO GALLERY
MANCHESTER GAME BOX SCORE / PHOTO GALLERY
ANDERSON, Ind. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology concluded a successful 2015 baseball season with a pair of losses in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament on Friday.
Anderson won the opening game of the day 19-6, while Manchester advanced to the conference tournament championship round with a 15-7 victory over the Engineers in the nightcap.
Rose-Hulman finished the season with a 26-16 record, a trip to the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, and a second-place finish in the regular season standings. The Fightin' Engineers also earned the 700th career victory for head coach Jeff Jenkins and secured their 24th winning season in his 26 years at the college.
Following the tournament championship game on Saturday, senior Josh Hoeing earned a spot on the all-Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament team. Hoeing batted .571 for the tournament with an 8-14 performance that included two doubles, one triple, five runs scored and five RBIs. Hoeing recorded a slugging percentage of .857 for the tournament.
In Friday's opener, Anderson relied on a strong offensive effort to rally from a 5-0 deficit and top Rose-Hulman 19-6.
Rose-Hulman jumped out to a 5-0 lead early in the contest, led by two RBI hits from Zach Trusk. He slapped an RBI single to give Rose-Hulman a 1-0 lead and later added an RBI double to make the score 2-0. Junior Caleb Kissel added a two-run single early, and junior Patrick Klima also had an RBI single as the Engineers built the early advantage.
Hoeing led the Fightin' Engineers with two singles and one run scored. Kissel added two singles, two RBIs and scored once, while Trusk also had two hits and two RBIs. Junior Donnie Waters contributed two singles, and junior Kody Alayon had two singles and scored once.
Junior Karson Nixon shut down the Anderson offense without a run for the first inning, before the Ravens bats came to life. Eight players had multiple hits for Anderson, with Devon Traylor and Jordan Ball recording four hits each.
In the nightcap, Manchester relied on a strong offensive performance to advance to the championship round in the 15-7 win. Eric Knepper had two home runs and six RBIs, while Kyle Norris had four hits to lead the Spartans attack.
Sophomore Drew Schnitz, Kissel and junior Zach Hull led the Rose-Hulman offense with two hits each. Hoeing added a double and scored twice in his final collegiate game as part of Rose-Hulman's 10-hit attack.
