WESTFIELD, Indiana – The Ripon baseball program wrapped up its weekend with a pair of games on Sunday afternoon at Grand Park, first falling to #15 Aurora 14-11 before dropping a 7-2 decision to Benedictine.
In the opener, Aurora (1-0) jumped on Ripon (1-2) early as the Spartans held a 3-0 lead after two and a half innings. However, Ripon punched back in the bottom of the third as
Alex Pankratz launched his first home run of the season, a two-run shot to bring Ripon within one.
Aurora added three more in the top of the fourth before Pankratz notched his third RBI of the day in the bottom half, knocking in
Crete Slattery on an RBI single to cut the Red Hawk deficit to three. In the bottom of the fifth,
Remington Cox scored
Kyler Hickman on an RBI single to left field and Ripon inched closer again.
Leading 6-4, Aurora scored eight runs across the sixth, seventh and eighth innings to command a 14-4 lead with six outs to go. Ripon would not go away and had its biggest inning of the season in the bottom of the eighth, scoring six runs to draw within four. Pankratz continued his career day with a two-run triple before
Nick Terrell singled to score Pankratz. The next at-bat, Hickman launched a three-run shot and the Red Hawks trailed 14-10. However, Ripon was retired in order the next three batters to end the inning.
Kaleb Burns added an RBI double with no outs in the bottom of the ninth, but Ripon left the tying run at the dish and Aurora escaped with the win.
Pankratz went 3-for-5 with a career-high five RBI, two runs scored and a walk, just missing a double to complete the cycle. Slattery also had three hits and scored twice.
Jack Anderson, Terrell, Hickman,
Nick Tenny, Cox and Burns all had two hits apiece for Ripon.
On the mound,
Dallan Lopez got the start and went 3.0 innings, giving up five earned runs.
Brett Tetzlaff went 1.2 innings in relief and struck out two batters.
In the afternoon finale, Benedictine (1-0) got on the board in the bottom of the first with an RBI double after the Eagles led off the game with a triple. The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the third where the Eagles added four more runs via a double and a pair of home runs to take a 5-0 advantage.
BenU added two more runs on another homer in the bottom of the seventh for its final runs of the game.
Ripon attempted a comeback in the top of the eighth; Tenny hit a one-out, RBI double to score Terrell before
Gabriel Zielinski reached on an error the next at-bat, scoring Hickman, to bring Ripon within 7-2. The Red Hawks went down in order in the top of the ninth to close out the game.
Ripon was stymied at the plate for the first time this season, though Hickman went a perfect 3-for-3 for nearly half of Ripon's hits in the game. Tenny went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a walk, while Cox and
Mason Gray also recorded base knocks.
Blaine Wahlen got the start on the mound, going 6.0 innings while surrendering eight hits and five earned runs while punching out six.
NEXT UP: Ripon starts its spring break trip on Saturday (March 9) against Illinois Wesleyan at 11:30 a.m. in Auburndale, Florida.
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