ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Indiana Tech baseball team opened its 2018 season this weekend with a three-game set against Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) rival Concordia, winning the first game on Saturday, 12-11, and the finale on Sunday 6-0, while falling 5-1 in the first game of Sunday's doubleheader.
The opening game of the season for both teams was a wild game, with 13 runs being scored in the ninth inning alone. Already leading 6-4, the Warriors doubled their score thanks to a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, a walk, an error and a hit bats-man. Dillin Diehm would lead things off with a solo shot while
Tighe Koehring made it a 12-4 game with a grand slam.
The Cardinals would be unimpressed by the offensive explosion, however, plating seven runs of their own off six hits to cut the deficit to one, but Jason Mueller would come in with the winning run at the plate to record the final out of the game to give Tech the 12-11 victory.
The second game of the weekend would see the Warrior offense stifled by Concordia ace Marshall Oetting, who limited the Orange and Black to just one run on six hits while striking out 12 batters over eight innings. The hosts would strike in the bottom half of the first as Micah Oetting drove in a pair of runs with a single.
The Cardinals would add single runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh as they increased their lead to 5-0. Daniel Johnson II would do his best to spark a two-out rally in the ninth with a double to score Javier Castaneda, but that would be all the visitors would get as Concordia won 5-1.
Just as Oetting stymied the Warriors in game one of Sunday's doubleheader, senior right-hander
Jason Sterrett would throw a complete game shutout, allowing just four hits over the nine innings while striking out a pair of batters.
Koehring would drive in the first four runs of the game for Tech, using a groundout in his first at-bat to drive in Johnson while he smashed a double in the third to make it a 3-0 game. A sacrifice fly from the senior designated hitter/catcher would put the Warriors up 4-0 while the visitors added runs in the eighth and ninth to give Sterrett plenty of breathing room as Tech took the series with the 6-0 win.
Tech (2-1) concludes its fall ball slate with a three-game series against WHAC foe Lourdes over Homecoming Weekend, Sept. 30-Oct. 1. The two teams open things up with a doubleheader on Saturday while a single nine-inning game concludes the series on Sunday. First pitch is set for 12 p.m. on both days.
