FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The Indiana Tech baseball team split a pair of nonconference, seven inning games against Indiana Wesleyan Thursday afternoon, falling 7-5 in game one before taking game two 4-3, at Warrior Field.
In the opening contest, the Wildcats got on the board first after an unearned run gave them a 1-0 lead, but the Warriors answered back with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning as
Bobby Bennett reached home on a double play with the bases loaded. Indiana Wesleyan tacked on an additional two runs off a home run in the second to go ahead 3-1.
Tech cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fourth, but the Wildcats notched a pair of runs in the sixth and seventh to take a 7-3 lead over the hosts. The Orange and Black made things interesting in the bottom half of the seventh though, scoring twice in the inning to make it a 7-5 game, but
Tighe Koehring struck out with the bases loaded to end the game.
Koehring and
Matt Bandor each notched a pair of hits, with the former recording a double.
Joe Wolf took the loss after allowing three runs, two earned, on four hits in 2.2 innings of work.
Tech came out swinging in game two, with Bandor using a ground-rule double to start things off in the first while
Glen McClain scored him with a triple to center.
Reese Olden came across to score in the next at-bat to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead after the first. Bandor came up with an two-RBI single in the second to score
Javier Castaneda and
Dante Biagini and double the Warrior lead to 4-0.
Two hits and a pair of errors gave the Wildcats two runs in the third though, but
Andrew Hammond worked out of the jam to leave with a 4-2 lead after three innings of work.
Jared Harvey came on in relief in the fourth and worked the next 3.1 innings, striking out six batters and keeping IWU off the scoreboard until the sixth inning.
Joe Pratt then shut the door on IWU in the seventh to pick up his fourth save of the season and give Tech the split.
Bandor finished the game 2-3 with two RBI's and a run while Hammond picked up the win.
Tech (15-14) returns to action next Friday as they host Lawrence Tech in Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) action. The game time will be announced next week.
