Baseball team concludes 2011 regular season by splitting two conference games at Bluefield, opens AAC Championship play against Milligan on Tuesday
Back on April 4, Reinhardt and Bluefield were tied at 5-5 after six innings when the contest was stopped because of heavy rain. On Sunday afternoon, neither squad was able to score in the seventh inning, sending the game into extra innings. The Eagles broke through with two runs in the top of the ninth inning to come away with the victory.
The winners finished with a 12-10 edge in hits and each club left 10 runners on base. Reinhardt was guilty of three errors and the Ramblin' Rams none.
Offensively for the Eagles, Josh Wilson went 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored while freshman Phillip Bates ended 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored. Michael Lonati was 2-for-4 with a double, two runs scored and an RBI while Billy King came up with two hits in four at-bats with a run scored. Don DiPetta provided the game-winning RBI with a ninth-inning single.
Ricky Johnson was the original starting pitcher for Reinhardt and went 4 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs with a pair of strikeouts before giving way to two relievers. On Sunday, freshman Trent Sheffield tossed three solid innings for the win, yielding just one hit and no runs with a strikeout.
In the regular season finale, the guests scored once in each of the first two innings before Bluefield tied it at 2-2 in the bottom of the second. The Eagles regained the lead with a three-run fifth inning but it was short-lived as the Rams plated three runs of their own in the bottom half to knot the score at 5-5. The hosts pulled away with two runs in the seventh inning and five in the eighth.
Each team ended with 12 hits while Bluefield made three of the contest's five errors. Reinhardt stranded nine base runners and the Rams five.
Lonati led the way for the Eagles by going 4-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored while Zach Kles hit a solo home run. Brett Flick added a run-scoring double while freshman Josh Clark also collected a two-base hit.
Six Reinhardt pitchers were used in the game. Ben Gonglach was the starter and lasted 3 2/3 innings, surrendering two hits with a pair of strikeouts. Freshman CJ Oliva absorbed the loss after throwing 2 1/3 innings.
The Eagles are 17-33 overall and finished 9-12 in the AAC, tying for fifth place, while Bluefield is 24-24 overall and was 10-11 in conference play, tying for third. Reinhardt opens play at the AAC Championship tournament on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. in Kingsport, Tenn., against the No. 3-seeded Milligan College Buffaloes. The winner of the double-elimination event earns the conference's automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship tournament.