RIPON, Wisconsin – The Ripon baseball program got a gem on the mound from
Brady Wotruba to help the Red Hawks defeat Chicago 6-3 on a cloudy and rainy Tuesday afternoon at Francis Field.
The second game of the doubleheader between Ripon (9-14, 6-6 MWC) and Chicago (9-17, 8-4 MWC) was suspended due to weather conditions with Chicago leading 4-3 in the ninth inning. The Maroons led off the ninth with a double before play was halted. The game will be completed in Chicago on Wednesday, April 24 before the Red Hawks' game at Chicago. First pitch of the suspended game is scheduled for 1 p.m.
In the best outing of his career, Wotruba tossed 7.0 innings and gave up just four hits with one earned run. He punched out three, marking his fifth outing this season with multiple strikeouts. Only once did a Maroon reach third base or beyond and the freshman faced the minimum in three of seven innings.
Ripon got on the board early in the bottom of the first as
Kaleb Burns homered in Ripon's second at-bat of the game. The Red Hawks doubled their lead in the bottom of the second as
Remington Cox connected on a two-out, RBI single to bring home
Jack Anderson.
Another solo run was tacked on for Ripon in the bottom of the third. After Burns had a one-out double,
Alex Pankratz moved the runner over on a groundout and
Nick Terrell drove home Burns to increase the Ripon advantage.
Chicago got one back in the top of the fourth – with runners on second and third and one out, a sacrifice fly brought home the Maroons' first run of the day, though Wotruba stranded a runner at third to end the inning.
The Red Hawks doubled their two-run lead in the bottom of the fifth thanks to a two-run single by Anderson in an inning that was kickstarted by a leadoff walk and single.
Ripon's last run was scored in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI groundout by
Nick Tenny, and though Chicago made things interesting in the top of the ninth with two runs and the tying run at the plate with one out,
Dawson Selvoski slammed the door and preserved the Ripon win.
Burns (2-for-4, RBI, walk, 3 runs), Terrell (2-for-4, RBI), Anderson (2-for-4, 2 RBI, run) and Cox (2-for-4, RBI) all had multi-hit days at the plate, while Pankratz (1-for-4, run),
Kyler Hickman (1-for-3) and
Michael Sheehy (1-for-4) also were in the hit column.
In the suspended game, Ripon scored the first two runs of the game in the bottom of the first on a throwing error by Chicago coupled with an RBI groundout by Anderson. The Maroons led off the second with a solo homer and tied the game in the third on an RBI single, but a stolen base by Burns and an error by Chicago in the bottom of the third plated another run for Ripon.
The game remained 3-2 Ripon until another solo home run for Chicago in the top of the sixth evened the score. The Maroons took the lead in the eighth on an RBI triple, but one more inning will be played next week to determine the winner.
NEXT UP: Ripon ends its homestand on Thursday (April 18) as the Red Hawks host UW-Oshkosh for a 3:30 p.m. first pitch.
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