LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The Rose-Hulman baseball team won both games of a doubleheader against Transylvania Saturday afternoon. Big rallies in each game of the day spurred the Fightin' Engineers to two key HCAC victories. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology relied on a huge sixth inning rally to win the opener, and scored three runs in the top of the ninth inning to clinch game two of the day.
In the opener, Rose-Hulman scored nine runs in the sixth inning to turn a 2-2 tie into a 14-2 victory. The Fightin' Engineers pounded out 17 hits in the contest and also added three insurance runs in the eighth inning of the win.
The huge sixth inning featured a run-scoring single by David Burnside, a sacrifice fly by Zach Trusk, an RBI single from Drew Schnitz, an RBI double by Brian Thomas, an RBI single by Koby Close and a two-run single by Davis Robeson to highlight the nine-run spurt.
Marcus Wechselberger led the 17-hit attack with three singles, two RBIs and one run scored. Conner Shipley added two singles and scored twice. Burnside also contributed two singles and scored three times, and Robeson had two singles and two RBIs. Thomas had the biggest statistical day with two doubles, one run scored and three RBIs.
The offense helped make a winner of pitcher Chuck Alexa, who tossed four scoreless innings in relief. Alexa allowed just two hits with five strikeouts in four scoreless innings for his second win of the season.
The RHIT offense came up big in game two of the day, scoring eight runs on the strength of 12 hits. The Fightin' Engineers trailed 7-5 heading into the top of the ninth but scored three runs in the frame to snag a come-from-behind victory. In the dramatic ninth an error and double put two Engineer runners in scoring position and Zach Trusk singled home a pair to tie the game at 7-7. Brian Thomas provided the go-ahead single in the frame that scored Trusk. Rose-Hulman won game two 8-7.
In game two David Burnside went 5-5 at the plate with a double and RBI. Trusk finished 3-4 with 3 RBIs and Davis Robeson drove in a pair of runs for the Fightin' Engineers.
Pitcher Stone Brogan picked up the win after coming in relief and firing three solid innings. Brogan allowed one run on one hit.
Rose-Hulman improved to 8-14 and 6-4 in league play, while Transylvania dropped to 10-14 and 5-6 in conference games. The Fightin' Engineers and Pioneers conclude their three-game series with a single game at noon on Sunday.
