WESTFIELD, Ind. – The Indiana Tech baseball team opened its 2016 season on Saturday with a pair of games against Bethel College. Tech swept the doubleheader against the Pilots at Grand Park, winning 21-2 in game one before a 23-6 victory in the nightcap.
 
The Warriors opened up the season in midseason form as they scored seven runs in the bottom of the first inning. Charlie Sipe, Peyton Newsom, Glen McClain and Brian Hakes all doubled as the Orange and Black batted around in their first contest of 2016.
 
Tech then followed that up with a five-run second inning, with Hakes adding another double to drive in two more of his four RBIs in the game. Sipe finished the game with three RBIs, two walks and a triple. Other Warriors with multiple-RBI games were: Kyle Mead, Robert Nagel and Zach Fyfe.
 
Jared Harvey pitched six innings for coach Kip McWilliams to get the win, allowing only two hits and one run (unearned) while striking out 11 Pilots. Zach Sailors came on in relief in the seventh to record five strikeouts and allowing just one run on three hits.
 
Game two featured just as much offense, but took a while for the Warriors to get going as Bethel scored four runs in the top of the first and were helped by two Tech errors. Starter Tyler Wells would limit the Pilots to just one more run over his next three innings of work to get the win, allowing five hits while striking out four batters.
 
The Warriors got their offense going in the bottom of the third as Ffye and Mead lead off the inning with back-to-back walks. Sipe would then double to plate Ffye in the next at-bat while Hakes followed with a two-bagger of his own to score Mead and cut the deficit to two. A sacrifice fly from Koehring make it a 4-3 game before Peyton Newsom and McClain launched back-to-back home runs to give the Warriors a 6-4 lead.
 
Bethel would come back in the top of the fourth with two runs to tie the game at six-apiece, but Tech score seven runs in the bottom half of the inning, with all seven runs coming with two outs. Newsome would hit his second homer of the game to make it 10-7 while McClain tripled in the next at-bat only to be brought home on a triple from Fyfe.
 
After scoring two more in the fifth, the Orange and Black would push across eight more runs in the sixth to complete the sweep.
 
McClain would hit for the cycle as he went 4-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs. Koehring went 4-for-4 as well while driving in six runs. Newsome added five RBIs while Connor McLaughlin pitched three innings of one-hit ball and didn't allow Bethel to score again while striking out six.
 
Tech (2-0) returns to action on Sunday as they face Ohio Regional Campus Conference champion Miami-Hamilton in Westfield. Game time is slated for 1 p.m. from Grand Park.