FRANKLIN, Ind. - The Bluffton University baseball team followed the same script they read from on Saturday as the Beavers dropped game one at Franklin before notching a split with a 12-10 victory in the nightcap. Bluffton stands 15-21 on the season and in the Heartland Conference with one week of regular season games to play. Franklin is currently third in the conference with a 19-11 mark.
Kenny Schneider (Sunbury/Big Walnut) doubled home Adam Duncan (Northwood/Lake) in the third inning and Jacob Latkofsky (Temperence, Mich./Ida) plated Duncan two innings later with his sacrifice fly to left, but the Beavers trailed 8-2 before a four-run ninth made the final score 8-6 in favor of the Grizzlies.
Senior Jaxon Rogan (Marysville) opened the scoring in the final frame when his single through the right side drove in Latkofsky. Two batters later, graduate student Parker Reynolds (Avon) drove an 0-2 offering over the fence in left for a three-run shot that pulled Bluffton within two and still no outs. A Jake Baumgartner (Toledo/Start) base knock to center was the only hit Bluffton could muster after the Reynolds' dinger as Franklin held on to take game one by an 8-6 count.
Garrett O'Reilly (Galena/Orange) dipped to 2-5 after giving up eight runs, five earned, on seven hits in 5.2 innings of work. He struck out two, walked two and unleashed four wild pitches. Spencer Garrison (West Salem/Northwestern) worked 2.1 innings of scoreless relief, allowing just two hits with two strikeouts and no free passes.
Jack Towell (Batavia/West Clermont) went 3-of-5, while Schneider and Baumgartner both chipped in with two safeties. Reynolds drove in three and Duncan crossed the dish twice.
Bluffton scored a pair of unearned runs in the second inning of game two, but the Beavers still trailed 6-2 after three frames. That was when O'Reilly took over at the plate. He laced a two-run double to right center in the fourth and followed with an RBI single up the middle an inning later, making it 6-5.
A walk to Brandon Wilson (Casstown/Miami East) with the bags full of Beavers tied it at 6-6 before a wild pitch and the ensuing throwing error allowed two more visitors to make their way across home plate for an 8-6 Bluffton lead!
Towell and Duncan both took one for the team in the sixth, getting hit with the bases loaded for easy RBI's, if getting hit by a baseball traveling at over 80 miles per hour is easy. It really was an easy RBI for O'Reilly who drew a free pass with the bases juiced as Bluffton opened an 11-7 spread midway through inning six.
With Bluffton clinging to an 11-9 lead in the seventh, senior Reid Ruhl (Hamilton) tripled home Rogan with a crucial insurance tally as Franklin plated a run in the ninth, but Seth Evans (Ada/OSU-Lima) closed it out for his fourth save of the season.
Rogan and Towell both rapped three hits in game two, while O'Reilly went 2-of-4 with four RBI and two runs scored. Towell crossed the dish three times for the victors. Rogan and Reynolds both scored twice in game two.
Eddie Budinski (Louisville) had his second solid outing in the past 11 days as he moved to 2-1 after tossing four innings of three-run relief. He struck out nine, a week and a half after a 10-K performance against Anderson! Seth Altman (Hilliard/Hilliard Davidson) started and went four innings, allowing six runs on three hits with six strikeouts and three walks, but he did not factor in the decision.
Bluffton will strap them up this Friday, May 7, when the Beavers welcome Manchester University for a crucial Heartland Conference doubleheader that will go a long way toward determining seeding for the HCAC tournament that kicks off the following week. Game one with the Spartans is slated for 1 p.m. at Memorial Field.
-BEAVERS-