Lancers take two from Knights
WINONA LAKE, Ind. – Grace’s baseball team picked up two victories to start its series against Marian, winning 10-3 and 6-1 on Friday afternoon.
With the game scoreless through two innings, Marian (11-15, 5-9 CL) was poised to take the lead in the third. Grant Hartley fielded a hard-hit ball and made a perfect throw from his right field position to nab the runner at the plate attempting to score.
Grace (11-12, 3-9 CL) got things cooking in its half of the third. Maximo De Leon singled and Jeff Pawlik doubled to put both runners in scoring position. Austin Carr drove in the first run with an RBI groundout, and Sean Gannon plated the second run with his sacrifice fly.
Josh Cosme led off the fourth with a single and his courtesy runner, Keenan LeBlanc, came around to score on a De Leon RBI single. Austin Carr executed a beautiful bunt to plate De Leon to make the score 4-0.
Marian cut the deficit to two with a pair of runs in the fifth, but each time the Knights scored Grace had an answer.
Grace tacked on three runs in the sixth inning to increase the lead to five. Carr added two more RBIs with a single. Later, Sam Newkirk skied a popup behind first base that was difficult to judge in the windy conditions and dropped in for a double, allowing Pawlik to score.
The final three runs came from a two-RBI single from Newkirk and an RBI groundout from Bradyn McIntosh in the eighth.
Kyle Reinartz got the start on the mound for the Lancers and pitched 4.2 innings with a career-high nine strikeouts. Hunter Schumacher came on to finish the final 2.0 innings in a non-save situation. He collected four strikeouts to close out the 10-3 victory. Grace pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts in the game. Isaiah Herbster picked up the win in 1.1 of relief.
Five Lancer hitters recorded a multi-hit game. Pawlik reached safely in all five at-bats with two hits, two HBPs and a walk. Carr went 2 for 4 with four RBIs and a run and Newkirk was 2 for 4 with 3 RBIs and a walk.
Game two was a pitcher’s duel for most of the game. The scoreline read 1-1 after four innings.
The Knights tallied first with a run in the third, and Grace immediately responded with a run to keep pace.
After Caleb Davis toed the rubber to start game two, Tyler Yoder made his Lancer-debut in a high-pressure situation in the third. With one run in and one runner on, he was summoned from the bullpen to get the final out of the inning.
The Lancers broke open the game with a four-run fifth inning. Grace strung together a series of hits to load the bases for Pawlik. With a 2-1 count, he hit a towering drive to center that cleared the fence by some distance. The grand slam homerun sent the Grace dugout into a frenzy.
Sean Gannon capped off the scoring an inning later with a longball of his own to make it 6-1.
Sam Justice notched the win with 2.1 innings of relief, scattering two hits and striking out three batters.
Pawlik finished 2 for 3 with four RBIs and a run, and De Leon added one run on two hits with an RBI.
Grace will head to Mount Vernon to complete its series with the Cougars on March 27 at 1 p.m.