ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University baseball team split their doubleheader against the visitors from Albion College to finish the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) series with a 1-2 record.
Game one of the day was the win for the Thunder. The game headed to the fourth scoreless with Rylan McBride dealing for the home side. The senior ultimately finished the game with six innings of work. He allowed just one run on four hits, three walks and a hit-by-pitch while striking out four.
In the bottom of the fourth, Trine broke up the tie with a three-run inning. After a groundout to start the inning, the team had three straight hits with the third from Dane Dubois bringing in the first run of the day. A few batters latter saw the bases loaded for William Taczak who brought in a pair of runs on a single through the right side of the infield.
The Britons responded with one run in the top of the third, but McBride limited the damage with a groundout to end the inning. Jack Villarreal took the mound in relief for the top of the seventh and had two quick innings before running into trouble in the ninth inning. After giving up a hit and a walk, Evan Shoppell entered the game and earned his second save of the season after recording the final two outs.
The second game saw more offense for both teams. The Britons struck first, plating a pair in the top of the second. The lead was short lived with Dubois and Cole Schmidthuber coming up with RBI-singles in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game.
Henry Williams made his first start at Trine in the game and made it into the fourth inning before allowing an earned run. He struck out three along the way. It was in the top of the fourth that Albion added a pair of runs to retake the lead.
That 4-2 score held until the fifth, when Nathan Gilmet changed it in impressive fashion. The sophomore recorded his first grand slam of the season with a long ball over the centerfield fence that retook the lead at 6-4.
The Britons scored one run in the sixth and four in the seventh to retake the lead at 9-6. Dylan Jenkins stopped the bleeding when he took the mound in the seventh, finishing out the game with two-and-a-third strong innings of work. He struck out one while allowing no baserunners.
Trine made a comeback attempt in the ninth, starting with a one-out double by Joel Walton. Gilmet brought in a run by legging out a grounder to third base. After a hit-by-pitch in the next at-bat the Thunder had the winning run at the plate, but the game ended on a double play instead.
Trine finishes the day 9-15 overall and 3-4 in MIAA play. They are scheduled to remain at home for their next contest, hosting Adrian College for another MIAA game. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.
