GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The fourth-seeded Indiana Tech baseball defeated top seed and Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) regular season champion Madonna, 7-4, in the WHAC Tournament at DeWitt Field on Thursday afternoon to force a decisive championship game later today.
 
Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the sixth, the Warriors would load the bases with three walks and a sacrifice bunt. With two outs Mark Carpenter would single to center to drive in Robert Nagle and Charlie Sipe and give Tech a 5-4 lead. Alex Delk would then single to center as well to drive in Peyton Newsom to make it a 6-4 ball game.
 
Senior Connor McLaughlin, who came in to pitch in the sixth, would allow just three base runners over the next three innings to pick up his second win of the season. The North Manchester, Indiana native allowed just two hits and a walk in his 3.2 innings.
 
Peyton Newsom would hit his 11^th home run of the season and third of the tournament in the in the eighth to give the Orange and Black another insurance run while Brian Hakes and Kyle Mead doubled in the fifth inning to give Tech its first three runs of the ball game after Madonna had taken a 2-0 lead with runs in the first and third.
 
Hakes and Carpenter would each collect two RBI's while Newsom scored twice. Delk and Mead finished the game with matching 2-4 days with a run and a run driven in each. Cody Kellar went five innings for the Warriors to start the game, allowing four runs, three earned, on seven hits while striking out three in the no-decision.
 
Tech (39-17) and Madonna will play at 5:30 p.m. this evening for the outright tournament title. The two teams were originally scheduled a half hour after the completion of game one, but weather delayed the game. Links to live video and stats will be available at IndianaTechWarriors.com.