KALAMAZOO, MI - The Kalamazoo College baseball team split a doubleheader with Hope College today. The Hornets won the first game 2-1 and lost the second game 6-5. Kalamazoo moves to 13-9 overall this season and 10-4 in MIAA play.
The first game was an absolute pitcher's duel. Ryan Orr threw seven innings for Kalamazoo while giving up one run on three hits. He moves to 5-0 overall this season with the win.
No runs were scored in the game until the Flying Dutchmen scored in the top of the sixth inning. The Hornets were unable to answer in the bottom of the sixth but thanks to Orr limiting the damage to only one run Kalamazoo had a legitimate chance to climb back in the seventh.
In the seventh inning the Hornets capitalized on a Dutchman error to get their offense going. Scott Devine doubled to bring in the first run, which was followed by an intentional walk to Carter Chandler. After that, Mitchell VanKoevering hit a sacrifice fly deep enough to center field to bring home Andre Gard and win the game.
Kalamazoo outhit Hope 8-3 and had no errors compared to Hope's two.
In the second game Hope's offense showed up motivated to play. They jumped all over the Hornets early and put up all six of their runs in the top of the second inning aided by a pair of errors
After the early 6-0 deficit Kalamazoo didn't fold however. The Hornets put up two runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth off of RBIs by Nate Donovan and Ian Kobernick.
Kalamazoo would score again off of Kobernick's second RBI in the bottom of the fourth, and two more times in the bottom off the sixth off RBIs from John Jackoviak and Ryan Orr.
In the bottom of the seventh Kalamazoo trailed Hope 6-5 and was threatening to steal the game from them late again. Kalamazoo had runners on second and third with one out but was unable to bring either one of them across.
The Hornets will look to win the series against the Dutchmen tomorrow as they'll play two at Hope.