WINONA LAKE, Ind. The HU baseball team erupted offensively in game one Thursday afternoon at Miller Field to double up Grace 20-10 before the Lancers returned the favor by handing their guests a 13-6 loss for the split.
The opener saw the most runs HU has put up all season in large part thanks to the bat of Langston Ginder. The stately second baseman went off for five hits which included two homers. He was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle but even more impressive was the ten runs he batted in accounting for half of his team's offense.
His two dingers were to blame for six of his double-digit RBI.
As a team, the Foresters pounded out a season-high 21 hits. In addition to Ginder's five, Jordan Malott hammered out four base pokes, three of which were doubles. Max Moser finished with three hits with one of those a two-run blast in the second. HU's second at-bat proved their most prosperous having touched home five times.
Huntington scored four more times in the third to bolt out to a 9-0 advantage. While it seemed unlikely the hosts would touch the lead, they weren't to be counted out as they responded with the next seven runs to close the gap to two at 9-7 after five.
It was the wake-up call the Foresters needed as they pieced together a four-run sixth jumpstarted when Sebastian Kuhns led off with a solo shot. As it turned out, Huntington scored in clusters as they matched that output in the eighth and then Ginder put the exclamation point on the contest by delivering a three-run bomb in the ninth.
Joey Butz started off on the mound for HU. He tossed the first four frames and gave up two hits, two runs and a walk while striking out five. After a short stint by Grant Simmons, Adam Oxley spent 3.1 innings on the bump to earn the win having fanned three batters while surrendering three hits, three runs and five walks. Riley McMahon then tossed an inning of hitless, scoreless relief to polish of GC.
Things started okay for the Foresters in the nightcap. After getting down early, 1-0, HU took the lead when Jarret Gray clocked one out of the park for a two-run shot in the second. Gray singled in another run in the third and then came around to score on Kuhns' RBI-double. It was a 4-1 game at that point before the wheels came off in the bottom of inning.
The Lancers worked two walks to kick things off and then went full throttle, cranking out six hits, one of which was a three-run dinger, to unleash for eight runs. Moser got one back with a solo shot, his second homer of the series, in the fourth. HU scored again in the fifth but Grace more than matched that by plating four runs over the final few frames to keep their guests at a healthy distance the rest of the way.
Gray finished with three of his team's 12 hits.
Tyler Papenbrock took the loss for HU having tossed the first four frames which included the third inning meltdown. He gave up ten hits, ten runs, eight of which were earned, and four walks while striking out six.
Huntington (25-11, 18-6) heads back to Miller Field tomorrow for another twin bill with Grace (16-17, 8-14).
The Huntington University Foresters compete in 17 intercollegiate sports for men and women. In the past decade, Huntington has produced 125 NAIA All-America honors and 449 All-America Scholar Athlete honors. Huntington University is a comprehensive Christian college of the liberal arts offering graduate and undergraduate programs in more than 70 academic concentrations. U.S. News & World Report ranks Huntington among the best colleges in the Midwest.
