BASEBALL

The Huntington baseball team needed two extra innings to dispose of Madonna 5-4 Sunday afternoon at Bowling Green High School (Ky.). The win came on the heels of a 13-4 loss to #17 IU Southeast as the Foresters move to 5-5 on the year.

Kade Flores knocked in the winning run in the top of the ninth against the MU Crusaders. He was credited with an RBI-fielder’s choice with Braden Kauffman scoring the winning run after singling his way on base and advancing to third on a wild pitch.

Frame and crew had to come from behind early in the contest after spotting Madonna a 3-0 lead after just one frame. They got it all back in the fourth with Beyonce Paco Paulina’s dinger highlighting the comeback rally. A pair of singles and balk set the stage for Owen Imel’s RBI-groundout followed by Dylan Rost’s run-scoring single up the middle.

Tied up at 3s, HU grabbed the lead in the fifth on Beldon Glasgow’s three-bagger that drove in Paulina who had drawn a base on balls just prior. This time it was MU scrambling to play catch up and managed to do so in the sixth forcing the game to extra innings.

Huntington edged out the Crusaders with eight hits to their seven. Glasgow and Mason Meyer each picked up a pair of base pokes to pace their team. Meyer, the fourth Forester to take a turn on the mound, earned the win in 1.2 innings of hitless, scoreless relief. He issued just one walk while striking out two of the five batters he faced.

The opener against a talented IU Southeast crew had a much different feel with errors getting the best of HU. The Grenadiers found home five times in their opening bat with two unearned pointing back to a fielding blunder. Huntington responded by getting those two back in their half of the frame thanks to Zach Pelletier’s RBI-single down the left field line and then some savvy baserunning by his pinch runner Parker Richards who eventually scampered home on a failed pickoff attempt.

HU’s only other runs came at the bat of Glasgow in the bottom of the fifth and on a wild pitch in the seventh while IUSE went off for another eight runs before it was all said and done.

The Grenadiers outhit Huntington 11-7 while taking advantage of four Forester errors. Starting pitcher Graham Kollen took the loss for HU having tossed the first three innings during which he gave up five hits, seven runs, four earned, and a walk while striking out four.

Huntington kicks off league play on Friday by hosting Indiana Wesleyan with opening pitch slated for 3:00 p.m.