HARDEEVILLE, S.C. – The No. 19-ranked Indiana Tech baseball team kicked off their spring break trip with a pair of wins over the University of South Carolina Beaufort on Saturday afternoon, winning 14-5 and 11-8 at the Richard Gray Baseball Complex.
The Sand Sharks struck first in their first trip up to the plate to take a 1-0 lead, but Tech countered with a three-spot in the top of the second to take the lead.
Trevor MacDonald put the Warriors ahead with a two-RBI single while
Moises Lopez made it a 3-1 game with a sacrifice fly to left. The offense continued to churn out runs in the third thanks to five hits and a USCB error. Three straight hits led to three runs while
Jake Ritson tripled with two outs to drive in
Kyle Harvey and make it a 7-1 game.
The hosts cut the deficit down to 7-4 thanks to runs in the third and fourth innings, but three-spots in the seventh and eighth innings from Tech put the game out of reach at 14-4.
Jake DeFries started the two-out rally in the seventh with an RBI single to score one while MacDonald drove in DeFries and
Branson Dossen to make it a 10-4 game. One inning later the Orange and Black scored three more times thanks to a throwing error and a pair of walks with the bases loaded.
Charles Dunavan move to 3-0 on the season while MacDonald finished the game with five RBI. MacDonald, Dossen, DeFries, Ritson,
Jacob Alvidrez and
Glen McClain each had two hits while
Reese Olden drew three walks.
Tech got on the scoreboard quickly to begin game two thanks to a two-run homer from Dossen and a two-out RBI single down the left field line from Ritson to make it a 3-0 game. The Sand Sharks put a run up in the bottom of the inning, but the Warriors answered back with two quick runs in the top of the second to extend their lead to 5-1.
The Orange and Black tacked on two runs in the fourth and sixth innings to go up 10-3, but USCB responded with four runs on four hits and an error in the bottom of the sixth to make it a 10-7 game.
Joe Pratt closed out the final two and two-thirds innings to give the Warriors the sweep on the day.
Hayes Sturtsman went five innings and picked up his first win of the season after scattering seven hits and striking out six batters while allowing three runs. Olden, Dossen and Ritson all drove in two runs while McClain went 3-5 with two runs.
Tech (10-4) concludes their weekend series with USCB on Sunday with a single nine-inning game. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. from the Richard Gray Baseball Complex.
