KOKOMO, Ind. -- The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology baseball team kept their season alive with an 11-10 walk-off victory over Mount St. Joseph on Friday afternoon. Rose-Hulman will battle Anderson on Saturday at 12 PM in their second win or go home game of the tournament.
Mount St. Joseph got the scoring going in the third with an RBI double, but Rose-Hulman came right back with three runs on an RBI single by
Colter Couillard-Rodak and a two-run single by
Colton Brown.
The Lions retook the lead by scoring six of the next seven runs with the only Rose-Hulman offense coming from a sacrifice fly by
Connor O'Connell. However, the Fightin' Engineers came right back and wiped away the 7-4 deficit with an RBI double by
Mark Serdinak and a two-run double by
Mason Rasmussen to tie the game at seven.
After two more runs for Mount St. Joseph in the seventh inning, the Rose-Hulman offense came right back with three more of their own on an RBI double by
Dalton Busboom and another two-run double by Serdinak to take the 10-9 lead.
The Lions were down to their final out in the ninth but responded with two singles and a walk to tie the game and load the bases, but
Jonathan Oliger responded with a strikeout to end the threat.
In the ninth, Oliger and Rasmussen ripped singles to put runners on the corners with one out, and after an intentional walk for
Kade Kline,
Peter Rogers walked it off with a sacrifice fly to left field to win the game 11-10.
Brady Strawmyer pitched 5.1 innings with 8 strikeouts and gave up 5 earned runs in his postseason debut.
Zacheus Carr and Oliger finished the final 3.2 innings with just three runs allowed, and Oliger picked up the win after the blown save.
At the plate, Couillard-Rodak and O'Connell led the team with three hits, and Brown, Serdinak, and Rasmussen added multiple hits and multiple RBIs in the win.
With the win, Rose-Hulman improves to 25-18 on the season. They will play Anderson on Saturday, May 11 at 12 PM in their first of two possible must-win games of the day. If they win that game, they will play again immediately following at 3:30 PM against the loser of Hanover and Transylvania.
