MISHAWAKA, Ind. – Trailing by one in the eighth, the Spring Arbor University baseball team pushed two runs across the plate to defeat Bethel College 6-5 in Crossroads League action Tuesday afternoon.

THE BASICS

SCORE: Spring Arbor 6, Bethel 5

LOCATION: Mishawaka, Ind.

RECORDS: Spring Arbor 10-12 (3-1 CL), Bethel 9-11 (1-3 CL)

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Spring Arbor broke a scoreless tie in the top of the fourth inning. Vincent Herschberger drew a leadoff walk before eventually crossing the plate on base hit by Noah Brook.
• Starting pitcher Nick Carroll silenced the Bethel bats through the first three innings, but the Pilots would score in each of the next four frames.
• With the score tied 4-4, Bethel's Eric Kelver opened the bottom of the seventh with a solo home run to put the hosts back in front.
• The Cougars battled back though, scoring twice on a wild play in the eighth. With runners on second and third with two outs, Chris Triplett was issued a walk. Ball four during the at-bat was a wild pitch allowing James Hall to score, and in the attempt to throw out Hall, the catcher's throw went wide of the pitcher covering the plate. The wild throw allowed Triplett to take off for second base and stay caught up in a run-down long enough for Jack Driscoll to also score the go-ahead run.
• Driscoll, Triplett and Brook all had two hits on the afternoon. Driscoll also scored twice and recorded a stolen base while Hall posted two stolen bases and two runs scored.
• Carroll allowed four runs on six hits over 5.1 innings. Sam Memmelaar pitched 3.2 innings of relief to earn the win giving up one run on three hits with three strikeouts.

QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH RYAN MARKEN

• "We tell our guys win ugly, win often and we did that today. We competed really hard. Nick Carroll have us five really good innings and gave us a chance to win. And then to have Mems on the back end to shut the door was huge.
• "Our offense wasn't great today, but we were very opportunistic. We scored two runs on a ball four passed ball to win a league game. That's what we call pressure. That kind of stuff gets me excited. Credit our guys. They played hard. Great team win!"

UP NEXT

Spring Arbor hosts Rochester College (3-15) in its home opener on Thursday, Mar. 22. Game one of the doubleheader is slated for a 1 p.m. start.

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