RICHMOND, Ind. -- Another solid Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology baseball season came to an end with a 3-1 loss to Mount St. Joseph in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon at Earlham College.
Rose-Hulman finished 18-24 overall but qualified for the HCAC Tournament once again after a 16-11 conference record. The Fightin' Engineers won 10 consecutive games in HCAC play in April to move into first place in the league standings, before ultimately finishing fourth in the conference to qualify for postseason play.
On Friday, Mount St. Joseph narrowly won a 3-1 pitching duel with single runs in the third, sixth and eighth innings. Austin Richey allowed one unearned run in seven innings of work for the Lions, before Matt Hofmann pitched the final 1.2 innings to earn the save.
Junior Ian Grant had a strong pitching performance to keep Rose-Hulman within striking distance. Grant scattered six hits with five strikeouts in seven innings of work for the Fightin' Engineers.
Offensively, Ryan Stachowski led the Engineer offense with two singles. Davis Robeson scored one run and Drew Schnitz had the lone RBI.
Following the tournament, Zach Trusk earned a spot on the all-HCAC Tournament Team for his performance over the two-game stretch. Earlham won the tournament to earn its first trip to the NCAA Tournament.
The Fightin' Engineers sent its graduating class of seven players with its fourth postseason tournament appearance. Rose-Hulman qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament and reached the Central Regional Championship Game in 2014 and 2016, while qualifying for HCAC Tournaments in 2015 and 2017.
