FRANKLIN, IND. -- Franklin College scored one run
in the eighth, ninth and 10th innings to keep its season alive
and top Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 7-6 to force a
seventh and final game of the Heartland Collegiate Athletic
Conference Tournament.
Rose-Hulman and Franklin will battle for the
third time this weekend for the HCAC Tournament title and an
automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament in the game at
noon on Sunday. The contest will be broadcast on WMHD-FM
90.7 with online stats and the broadcast at
www.rose-hulman.edu/sports.
After Franklin scored once in the ninth inning to
force extra frames, Paul Strack opened the 10th with a single
and moved to second on a bunt by Adam Blackburn. After an
intentional walk to Ian Sanders, Joel Chrobak emerged as the
hero with the game winning RBI single.
For Rose-Hulman, junior Keenan Long (Park
Ridge, Ill./ Northwestern University) blasted a two-run home
run, and junior Tim Tepe (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder)
improved his season batting average to .500 with two hits and a
solo home run to pace the Rose-Hulman offense.
Junior Andrew Bilse (Munster) provided
depth to the offensive effort with four singles on the
afternoon.
Fundamental baseball was the key to Rose-Hulman's
offense, as the Engineers successfully executed three sacrifice
flies for its remaining runs. Junior Chandler Kent
(Antioch, Ill.), sophomore Michael Kovacs (Cincinnati,
Ohio/Moeller) and junior Troy Eveslage (Ramsey/North
Harrison) provided the successful flies.
Junior Nick Maloney (Cary, Ill./Cary-Grove)
tossed six strong innings and allowed six hits and four
earned runs to give the Engineers a 6-4 lead into the late
innings. Matt Zmich blasted a two-run home run and added
an RBI single in the sixth to lead the Franklin offense.
Franklin improved to 31-10 on the season, while
Rose-Hulman dropped to 30-12 in 2009. The Sunday matchup
between the two teams will begin at noon.
