JOLIET, ILL. – The Indiana Tech baseball team traveled to non-conference foe, University St. Francis (ILL.) Tuesday evening for some doubleheader action where they split, falling 9-8 in game one before taking game two in a convincing 10-2 victory.
The Warriors were the first to strike in the first inning as
Dalton Swinehart would single to left field, sending
Jayden Reed home. It wasn't until the second inning when the Saints got on the board to even up the score 1-1. Tech got the bats rolling in the third inning as they erupted for five runs to give them the 6-1 advantage.
The host began to crawl their way back, scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth to cut the lead to within two, 6-4, and then adding five more runs in the fifth inning to take the 9-6 lead over the Orange and Black. The Warriors ended their scoring drought as they were able to score two runs in the top of the seventh behind the efforts of a
Luis Diaz homerun, sending in
Damien Gudakunst. Only down one, Tech's comeback would fall short as the Saints ended the game with a caught fly out to center field.
The nightcap started off with an absolute slugfest as the Warriors scored eight runs on six hits in the top of the first inning. Neither team scored until
Christian Mojica singled to left field in the fourth inning, sending in
Mike Snyder and giving the Orange and Black one more run to add to their lead before scoring their final run in the sixth to expand their lead, 10-0. The Saints continued to struggle to find their bats, only having one hit up until the bottom of the sixth where they scored their only two runs on four hits.
Going into the final inning down 10, the hosts were unable to make any sort of action happen as the Warriors would go on to win.
Weston Markle got the win for Tech, posting three strikeouts, allowing five runs and two hits.
Kris Massey would finish things off in the final two innings, giving up only one hit and notching five strikeouts.
Indiana Tech (28-19, 13-7 WHAC) will return to action Wednesday as they travel to Manchester University for a single game, with first pitch set for 4:15 p.m.
