HANOVER, Ind. -- The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology baseball team split their Saturday doubleheader with Hanover to take two of the three games in the series. The Fightin' Engineers dropped the first game of the day 8-10 before winning the finale 3-1.
In the first game of the day, the Fightin' Engineers got off to a slow start allowing three first-inning runs to the Panthers. Rose-Hulman pitcher
Alec Lewandowski would settle down after the first, allowing just one baserunner over the next three innings.
The Fightin' Engineers got a pair of runs back on an RBI single by Conner O'Connell in the fourth and an RBI double by
Peter Rogers in the fifth. Hanover would tack on another run in the bottom of the fifth to extend the lead to 4-2.
In the top of the sixth, Rose-Hulman would string together six runs on three hits that included an RBI single by
Jonathan Oliger, a bases loaded RBI walk by Black Deckard, an RBI groundout by
Kade Kline, and a two-run double by
Colter Couillard-Rodak to take an 8-4 lead. However, three Rose-Hulman errors in the bottom of the sixth would gift the lead back to Hanover as they would score five unearned runs on just three hits and lead 9-8. The Fightin' Engineers would get a runner on base in each of the last nine innings, but they were unable to capitalize and fell 8-10.
In the second game of the day, team bats went silent and a real pitcher's duel commenced.
Michael Yager went six strong innings of three hits and allowed just one run. He also struck out six batters. In relief,
Evan Chung would come in and pitch two innings and allow just two hits and two unearned runs in the outing.
Jonathan Oliger then came in to close it in the ninth with a three-up, three-down inning.
Rose-Hulman would tie the game at one in the fourth inning on a two-out RBI single by
Mark Serdinak. Then, in the seventh inning, the bats came alive. With the starter out of the game, six of the first eight batters of the inning would reach base. After an RBI single by Couillard-Rodak and a walk by
Andy Krajecki,
Dalton Busboom would send a ball deep over the left field wall for a three-run home run to stretch the lead to 6-1. Hanover would look to rebound again, and a Rose-Hulman error gave them a pair of unearned runs, but they would head to the eighth with a 6-3 lead.
The Fightin' Engineers tacked on an insurance run in the eighth on another RBI single by Couillard-Rodak, and they took home the win 7-3.
Peter Rogers led the offense with two-hits in each of the games.
Colter Couillard-Rodak added a two-hit game in the opener, and
Mark Serdinak added two hits in the finale. Couillard-Rodak added four RBIs on the day, and Busboom added three on his home run.
The Fightin' Engineers move to 15-7 on the season and 7-1 in the HCAC while Hanover drops to 8-16 and 2-7 in the HCAC. The Fightin' Engineers will hit the road for a pair of mid-week games on Tuesday at Webster (3 PM CT) and Wednesday at Wash U (2:30 PM CT)
