BASEBALL

The Forester baseball team kicked off their season on the road by splitting with MidAmerica Nazarene Friday afternoon at Dixson Stadium. After dropping game one, 6-2, Frame and crew bounced back with a 6-4 win in the nightcap for a 1-1 start to the year.

HU struck first in the opener. With two outs, Matt Wolff, after singling his way on base, came around to score on Jordan Malott’s double to left. The lead would hold until the third when the Pioneers strung together three hits to touch home twice.

MidAmerica added to their advantage with a little help from HU’s mound in the fifth. Three walks to load the bases set the tone for a two-run single and a 4-1 MNU lead. Both teams scored in the sixth with HU’s by way of an Owen Imel RBI-groundout after which the hosts scored twice to make for the 6-2 final.

Malott finished with two of Huntington’s five hits.

Noah Arbuckle (0-1) earned the start and was tagged with the loss after surrendering three hits, four runs and four walks while striking out three in 4.1 innings of work. Three other Foresters stepped into the circle after that, giving up a combined three hits and two runs.

Malott’s hot sticks carried over into game two where he hammered out three of his team’s five hits which included a three-runner dinger in the sixth that turned a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 HU lead that stuck.

While Malott’s long ball proved the game-winner, Ryne Wheeler was the first Forester to send one yard. The senior catcher cranked one over the right field fence in the top of the second to put the guests up 1-0. Gregory Nolasco Berroa walked in a run shortly after for run number two before the Pioneers got one back in their half of the frame.

By the fourth, MidAmerica had taken over the lead at 3-2 but the tables turned again in the sixth. After Beyonce Paco Paulina singled in a run, the junior centerfielder trotted home, along with Wolff, on Malott’s blast. MNU made one final push that resulted in a run in the bottom of the sixth but that’s where their offense dried up thanks to closer Max Meisner who tossed a one-hit seventh to pick up the save.

In his 2024 starting debut, Tyler Papenbrock collected the win after giving up four hits, three runs and four walks while striking out nine in five innings of work.

The Foresters will face off with MidAmerica again tomorrow for nine-inning game at 1:00 p.m. EST.