Photo by Jim Dostie
Posted: Mar 20, 2015
GRAND RAPIDS, MI – The Kalamazoo College baseball team defeated Calvin twice on Saturday in a doubleheader on the road. The team won the first game 13-10 after almost giving away a large lead, and won the second game 7-6 in comeback fashion.
In the first game Kalamazoo got on the board quick on back-to-back doubles by Ian Kobernick and Mitchell VanKoevering in the top of the first inning. Kobernick added an RBI of his own in the top of the second.
The Hornets offense really came alive in the third as Joey Aliotta knocked in two and John Jackoviak hit a 2-run homer. Kalamazoo added 2 more runs on a single from Nate Donovan in the fifth and headed into the bottom of the fifth with an 8-0 lead.
The Knights answered with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth, but Scott Devine answered right back for the hornets in the top of the sixth with a solo homerun.
Calvin then went onto make it a game scoring 8 runs combined over the sixth and seventh innings. A lot of the runs came out of errors made by Kalamazoo over the day. The Hornets had three errors all together, but of Calvin's 10 runs, only four of them were earned.
Ryan Orr got the W for the Hornets by going five strong innings and only surrendering three earned runs. VanKoevering. Devine, and Jackoviak each went deep. The team had four stolen bases and seven different players drove in runs. Kalamazoo out hit Calvin 16-11.
In the second game of the doubleheader it was the Knights who jumped on the board early and held a 4-0 lead heading into the fourth inning. In the fourth Kalamazoo was able to chip away at the lead behind a RBI from Jackoviak and an RBI single by Alex Fultz. An RBI single by Scott Devine in the top of the fifth pulled the Hornets to within a 4-3 disadvantage.
Calvin got that run back in the bottom of the fifth on a solo homerun. The Hornets went into the sixth inning trailing 5-3.
The Hornets bats woke up in the sixth inning as Jackoviak opened it up with his second homer of the day. The Hornets then loaded the bases, and Devine drew a walk and tied the game. Two more runners would score on two wild pitches after Devine's walk to give the Hornets a 7-5 lead.
Calvin got one run back in the bottom of the seventh but it was too little too late as the Hornets held on for the 7-6 victory.
Adam McDowell got the win on the mound for Kalamazoo after throwing 2.1 scoreless innings. Zach Popovich was credited with the save after 0.1 innings. Each team committed only one error in the contest and the Knights outhit the Hornets 11-10.
The Hornets play Calvin again tomorrow in another doubleheader in Kalamazoo starting at 11 am.