Skip to main content

HU drops 20-run barrage on Bethel in first game of sweep

The Huntington University baseball team dropped a 20-run barrage on host Bethel in the first game of a doubleheader sweep on Tuesday, April 8, winning 20-8 and 6-3.

The Foresters, 13-17 overall and 7-9 in the Crossroads League, turned a 5-4 advantage in the fourth inning into a laugher by scoring 15 runs in the final three frames. They scored five runs in the fifth, three in the sixth and seven more in the seventh to make a winner of Joe Ripke for the third time in four decisions.

Blake Ayers led a 21-hit Forester attack with four hits and two runs batted in. Dylan Henricks had three hits and three RBI, Shea Beauchamp had three hits, Dalton Combs had three RBI and Michael Crowley added two hits and three RBI. Ten Foresters had runs batted in during the contest.

Rikpke went the full seven innings despite yielding 14 hits and eight earned runs, with four of those runs coming in the sixth inning. He struck out one and walked one.

Bethel came out in the second game and held a 3-1 lead after four innings before HU came up with a four-spot in the fifth and added a solo tally in the sixth. Henricks led a six-hit attack with a pair of safeties and two ribbies, and Andy Roser also had two RBI.

Bethel hurt itself with three errors resulting in two unearned runs.

Winner pitcher Blake Hohlbein and reliever Marc Bowers were aided by their teammates turning six double plays in the field behind them.

Hohlbein went the first four innings, yielding three earned runs on five hits, with three strikeouts and two walks. Bowers pitched three scoreless frames for the save, yielding two hits.