BASEBALL

It was a hitter’s delight for the HU baseball team Saturday afternoon at Sarge Yoder Field in their sweep of Goshen, 16-12, 18-3. With today’s two wins and yesterday’s split, the Foresters win the series, 3-1, against the Maple Leafs.

Big swings highlighted the opener with HU knocking four out of the park and Goshen sending three long. Ian McCutcheon had a busy day, kicking off the scoring with his first homer in the first frame and then going yard again in the fifth.

Daniel Lichty had a three-run bomb just before McCutcheon’s solo shot in the fifth. Matt Wolff added to Huntington’s fifth-inning flurry with an RBI-double. He also posted a three-run dinger in the fourth on his way to logging three hits and four RBI for the game.

When all was said, the Foresters scored half their runs by way of the long ball while Goshen racked up seven runs with their three homeruns.

In addition to Wolff’s numbers, McCutcheon collected three hits and two RBI. Owen Young also hammered out three hits and drove in a run while Lichty finished with two hits and three RBI. As a team, HU piled up 18 hits, ten for extra bases, to GC’s 13.

After taking an early 1-0 lead, Frame’s crew had to overcome several deficits prior to finally taking a permanent lead in the fifth. They found themselves down 6-1 after two, pulled within one by the next frame only to stare at a 9-5 shortage by the fourth before eventually establishing an 11-9 advantage in the fifth on the way to cruising to the W.

Max Meisner offered 4.2 innings of relief to earn the win. During his time on the hump, he struck out five while giving up five hits, four runs and two walks.

HU’s hot bats carried into the nightcap as evidenced by pounding out 20 hits, nine for extra bases, at the expense of five Maple Leaf pitchers.

Just like the opener, McCutcheon kicked things off with a four-bagger bringing his homerun total to three on the day. This time around, it was a two-run shot and set the stage for a commanding 6-0 lead after HU’s first at-bat.

The visitors doubled their score with six more runs in the third to put the game out of reach as it was a 12-1 advantage by that point with the separation only getting more obvious by game’s end.

While there was plenty of footage for a highlight reel, Ryan Hale’s grand slam in the seventh certainly topped the list. It was just the tenth at bat of his career and put the exclamation point on Huntington’s convincing win.

The top of the order came up big for Frame’s crew with Lichty, McCutcheon and Langston Ginder each posting three hits and combining for seven RBI. Jaden Deel also added a trio of base pokes which included a two-run homer in the sixth while Jarett Gray finished with two hits and just as many RBI in Huntington’s hit fest.

Joey Butz went the distance to pick up the win on the mound having scattered eight hits for three runs while striking out nine.

The Foresters (22-18) are currently tied with IWU for third in the league standings with a 20-12 CL record. After taking a break from league play by hosting Manchester on Tuesday, HU has a high stakes series at top-seeded Mount Vernon over the weekend to wrap up the regular season.