TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The Bluffton University baseball team may have broken the ice on Friday night, but it kicked the doors in on Saturday, May 15, as the Beavers wrapped up a sweep of Rose-Hulman in the opening round of the Heartland Conference Tournament! Bluffton capped it off with a 9-7 victory in Terre Haute, sending the Beavers into the five-team double elimination tournament which kicks off Thursday, May 20, at top-seeded Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky.
Adam Duncan (Northwood) followed up his 4-of-5 effort Friday night with a three-run bomb to left in the top of the second, picking up Jake Baumgartner (Toledo/Start) and Jack Towell (Batavia/West Clermont) who opened the frame with back-to-back singles. Junior Brandon Wilson (Casstown/Miami East) made it 4-0 an inning later when his base knock plated Baumgartner who led off the third with a single and stolen base.
Bluffton's lead was just 4-3 in the fifth when consecutive doubles by Jaxon Rogan (Marysville) and Jacob Latkofsky (Temperence, Mich./Ida) pushed the spread back up to 7-3. Reid Ruhl (Hamilton) plated Duncan with a base hit in the sixth and it was deja vu two innings later when another Ruhl RBI made it 9-3.
Rose would not go down without a fight, however, as the Engineers rallied with four runs on five hits in the bottom of the eighth to make it interesting in the ninth. RHIT had the tying run at the plate with just one out in the final frame, but Eddie Budinski (Louisville) struck out the last two batters as Bluffton shocked the world!
The Beavers were the only lower seed to win a game in the Heartland Conference tournament and they did it twice, taking down a Rose-Hulman team that had defeated Bluffton 20 straight times before the 11-10 extra-inning victory Friday night.
Ruhl went 3-of-6 at the dish with two RBI. Duncan drove in three with his dinger and he also scored three times. Baumgartner crossed the dish twice. Senior Garrett O'Reilly (Galena/Orange) was superb for the victors, going 7.2 innings before turning it over to Budinski. He allowed six runs on eight hits with seven strikeouts while improving to 3-5 this season. Budinski capped it off with 1.1 innings of one-run relief.
The Beavers will return to action on Thursday, May 20, when Bluffton travels to Lexington, Ky. for the five-team double elimination portion of the Heartland Conference Tournament. Bluffton takes on Anderson at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday in the opening game of the day.
-BEAVERS-