FRANKLIN, Indiana - The Mount St. Joseph baseball team hit the road over the weekend, heading west to Franklin, Indiana to take on the Grizzlies in a three-game Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference series. The Lions dropped game one on Saturday, but bounced back to sweep the double-header on Sunday to take the series. Their offense exploded on Sunday to the tune of 29 hits and 28 runs scored in the two games.
In game one of the double-header the Lions sent 5th year senior
Aidan Post and his perfect record to the mound to start the game. Post was fantastic, going 7.0 innings allowing just 6 hits and 2 earned runs, keeping the outstanding offense from Franklin off balance all game long.
Both teams went scoreless in the first inning, the Lions then scored the first run of the game in the top of the second.
Kevin Schaaf drove an RBI single into left center to score
Ethan Mason from second base to get them on the board.
The score stayed that way until the top of the sixth, Mason led off with a walk and
Brennan Martin drilled a two-run homerun to right field to put the Lions ahead 3-0. The Lions then went back-to-back as
Tyler Herbers followed that up with a solo shot of his own.
After a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth for Post, the Lions offense got right back to work.
Anton Mere walked to start the inning and moved to second on a sac bunt by
Jake Lawson.
Andrew Harrison followed with a single, and an out later Martin connected on a three-run homerun his second in as many innings.
In the bottom of the seventh the Grizzlies were able to threaten against Post, but the Lions lefty retired two in a row to strand runners at first and third. Leading 7-0 heading into the eighth inning the Lions were looking to add more insurance to their lead.
Jordan Harley led the inning off with the first homerun of his career, pushing the Lions lead to eight. They would load the bases with no outs, Franklin was able to retire the next two and looked like they may get out of the inning. Martin then stepped to the plate and delivered a grandslam homerun to right field, giving him three homers in the game and nine RBIs (both of which tie school records).
Franklin made it interesting scoring six runs in the bottom of the eight, but
Ryan Caulfield came on to get the final four outs and secure the win.
Once again game two was an offensive battle, as the teams combined for 25 hits and 27 runs in the game.
The Mount got the scoring started with two in the top of the third. Mere led off with a base-hit and came around to score on an RBI triple from Lawson. Lawson would then score on an RBI groundout by
Andrew Harrison.
Franklin answered with three in the bottom of the inning to take the lead. The Lions quickly answered back with three of their own in the top of the fourth, and Franklin with three more in the bottom of the inning. So after four complete innings the Lions trailed 6-5.
In the sixth they would come back to tie the score, as
Matt Brankamp led off with a double and would eventually score on an sac fly by Lawson. They would add three more in the top of the seventh sandwiched around two perfect innings from
Matt Frye. The Lions added four more in the eighth and two more in the ninth to carry a 15-6 lead into the final half-inning. Franklin scored six times in the bottom of the inning, ending the game with the tying run at the plate.
Ryan Caulfield got the games final two-outs for his second save of the season.
UP NEXT:
The Lions will have a midweek game as they travel on Tuesday to Asbury University, that game is scheduled for a 5:00 PM start. They will then head to take on the Hanover Panthers who currently sit atop the HCAC standings in a three game series over the weekend.
