March 11, 2011

PORT CHARLOTTE, Florida - The Bluffton University baseball team took advantage of a four-hit shutout by Jordan Kruse (Napoleon) in game two of the Beavers' 11-1 win over Baldwin-Wallace on Friday, March 11, 2011. The Beavers stand 4-5 overall heading into their Florida finale with Muskingum on Saturday.

Bluffton managed just three hits in B-W's 5-0 shutout in game one on Friday. The Yellow Jackets plated two runs in the first and single scores in the second, fourth and sixth frames en route to the victory. Bluffton threatened in the first with a Kyle Niermann (Napoleon) single and a pair of walks, but Baldwin-Wallace ended the inning with a force at home and groundout to first.

Miles Richardson (Granville/Newark Catholic) was saddled with the loss despite his solid six-inning outing. He fanned five and walked five while allowing five runs, just two earned. Mark Hadaya (Beavercreek) worked a perfect seventh for the Beavers.

Bluffton plated a run on Nick Broyles' (Toledo/Whitmer) sacrifice fly in the first inning of game two before the Beavers went off with four runs in the third frame. Tim Webb's (Delaware/Worthington Christian) two-run single in the third picked up Richardson and Tyler Stephenson (Springfield/Northwestern). Matt McKinney (Columbus Grove/Bath) followed with a sacrifice fly to right before Anthony Cianci (Ravenna/Southeast) singled home Webb for a 5-0 lead.

A Broyles two-run double scored Richardson and Stephenson and Webb came through again with an RBI single that sent Broyles scurrying home in the top of the sixth inning. The Beavers tacked on three more tallies an inning later thanks to a pair of hits and two B-W errors. With Cianci and Niermann in scoring position, a Yellow Jacket miscue allowed two unearned runs to cross the plate. Freshman Tyler Wright (Troy) capped the demolition of B-W with a run-scoring single that plated Tyler Stephenson.

Six Beavers tallied two hits apiece, led by Tyler Stephenson who crossed the plate three times. Niermann, Richardson and Broyles all scored two runs, while Broyles and Webb drove in three runs each.

Bluffton meets Muskingum at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 12, 2011, before returning to Ohio for a home meeting with Oberlin on March 16.

-BEAVERS-