BLUFFTON, Ohio - The Bluffton University baseball team split a pair of Heartland Conference clashes with Hanover College on a warm and windy Senior Day at Memorial Field. The Beavers moved to 14-20 overall and 14-20 in the conference, while Hanover stands 17-16 on both accounts.
The Beavers dug a 12-0 hole and were on the verge of getting mercied in the opener when they found their bats. A five-run seventh powered by a three-run dinger from graduate student Adam Duncan (Northwood/Lake) kept the lights on as Bluffton made it 12-5 going to the eighth inning.
The visitors added single tallies in the eighth and ninth before Bluffton had one last gasp with four scores in the bottom of inning nine. Garrett O'Reilly (Galena/Orange) and Jaxon Rogan (Marysville) launched sacrifice flies and Jacob Latkofsky (Temperance, Mich./Ida) singled in Nathaniel DeWeese (Columbus/Hilliard Davidson), but it wasn't enough as Hanover parlayed their big early advantage into a 14-9 victory.
Reid Ruhl (Hamilton) went 2-of-5 in game one. Duncan drove in three and scored twice. Senior Tommy Siemer (Liberty Township/Lakota) took the loss after allowing 10 runs on eight hits with a pair of strikeouts. He walked three and hit three Panthers. Wayne Frey (Kirby/Riverdale) tossed two innings of no-hit relief with three punchouts and four free passes.
Game two had a slightly different feel as the Beavers went up 5-1 after one inning and added four more scores in the third as they opened up a 9-1 spread. Latkofsky and Jack Towell (Batavia/West Clermont) doubled in the first frame and Duncan came through with a sacrifice fly to right.
O'Reilly had an RBI double in the third and freshman Kenny Schneider (Sunbury/Big Walnut) tripled home Duncan as the Beavers made game two the Senior Day contest they will remember. Another three-run job by Duncan an inning later pushed the score to 12-2 after just four innings.
Another graduate student, Parker Reynolds (Avon), got in on the dinger action with a leadoff bomb to start the bottom of the sixth. O'Reilly scurried home following a wild pitch before Seth Evans (Ada/OSU-Lima) closed out the seven-inning 14-3 win with a perfect frame.
Jacob Boelkens (Millbury/Lake) scattered seven hits over six innings while improving to 3-3 on the season. He fanned six and issued just one walk while tossing 104 pitches in the victory.
Reynolds, Towell and Duncan all smacked two hits, with Reynolds and O'Reilly driving in two runs apiece. Duncan cashed in with four RBI and O'Reilly crossed the dish four times. Reynolds scored three runs.
Bluffton will hit the road to Franklin College on Sunday, May 2. Game one is slated for 1 p.m. in Franklin, Ind.
-BEAVERS-
