FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Indiana Tech baseball team kicked off its 2016-17 season on Friday afternoon with a 6-4 victory over Concordia (Mich.) in Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) at Warrior Baseball Field.
 
Tech got a strong performance from senior right-hander Jared Harvey, who pitched seven innings and struck out eight while allowing just one earned run in the no-decision. Peyton Newsom smashed a monster two-run homer to left center, Tighe Koehring and Keith Tatum both knocked in a run with doubles and Chris Gaynor drove in the game-winning run with a two-out two-run double in the eighth inning.
 
Koehring and Tatum would hit back-to-back doubles to deep center field in the first to put the Warriors and Black up 2-0 and while the Cardinals cut the deficit to one in the third, Newsome would crank the first pitch he saw in the fourth to put the Orange and Black up 4-1.
 
Harvey would continue to baffle Cardinals hitters after giving up his lone run, striking out four while allowing just one runner to reach second.
 
Concordia would come back to tie the game in the eighth as they took advantage of a pair of Tech errors, two hit-batsmen, a double and a walk, but the Orange and Black would come right back in the bottom of the inning.
 
A Matt Bandor single to center would find its way through the legs of the Cardinals center fielder and allow Benny Clark III to advance to third while Bandor took second. Gaynor would work a 2-2 count before sending a humpback liner to left field and scoring both runners to give Tech the 6-4 lead.
 
Jacob Foster would come into work the ninth following a leadoff walk from Branson Dossen, and promptly got momentum-killing 6-4-3 double play to work out of the jam and finished out the inning for the save.
 
Tech (1-0, 1-0 WHAC) and Concordia will take a day off before the two teams return to Warrior Field for a doubleheader matinée on Sunday. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. and links to live stats and video will be available at IndianaTechWarriors.com.