WESTFIELD, Indiana – The Ripon baseball program used two big innings to beat Hope 7-4 at Grand Park on Saturday afternoon in the Red Hawks' season opener.
It took Ripon (1-0) until the third to record a hit, but the bats woke up in that frame. With runners on first and third and one out,
Jack Anderson laced an RBI single to get Ripon on the board. Two batters later,
Nick Terrell reached on an error which allowed
Alex Pankratz to score. After a strikeout, Anderson scored on a wild pitch and the Red Hawks led 3-0.
Hope (0-1) got on the board in the bottom of the fourth, scratching one run across and cutting its deficit to two. The score remained 3-1 until the top of the eighth, where Ripon again scored a trio of runs –
Kyler Hickman recorded a two-out, RBI double and
Nick Tenny belted a two-run homer the next at-bat to give Ripon a 6-1 advantage with six outs to go.
The Flying Dutchmen again added a single run in the bottom of the eighth on a sacrifice fly, but Pankratz responded with a sacrifice fly of his own in the top of the ninth and Ripon headed into the bottom of the ninth up 7-2.
Things got interesting in the last half-inning – a two-out, two-run double brought Hope within three and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases. However,
Orion Rieden slammed the door with a strikeout and Ripon secured the season-opening win.
Tenny led the Red Hawks offensively, going 1-for-3 with a two-run home run and a walk. Pankratz, Anderson, Hickman,
Gabriel Zielinski and
Kaleb Burns all recorded hits as well while Pankratz scored twice.
On the mound,
Mitchell Lukasik got the start and went 6.0 innings to get the win, giving up just five hits and one earned run while striking out three.
Brandon Peace logged 2.2 innings of relief, while Rieden's only out of the game was the game-ending punchout.
NEXT UP: Ripon wraps up its weekend on Sunday (February 25) against #15 Aurora at 10 a.m. CT and Benedictine at 1 p.m. CT.
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