Saturday was a cool and blustery afternoon for baseball at Klenk Park as the Alma College hosted Hope College in an MIAA doubleheader. The Flying Dutchmen took both games of the twinbil by scores of 7-1 and 6-3 as the visitors recieved good pitching and defense to hold the Scots back.

With the losses, Alma is now 15-19 on the season and 9-15 in the MIAA, while Hope improved to 18-18 in 2014 and 14-10 in the league. The Flying Dutchmen won all four games of the two-day series.

Game 1

In the top of the first inning, Hope scored a single run off of Alma starting Jr. P Philip Jock (Wales/Memphis) on a walk, stolen base and two sacrifice flies. The Scots answered with one of their own in the bottom of the first frame.

Alma Fr. SS Alex Peczynski (Farmington Hills/Detroit Catholic Central) led off with a triple and was able to score on a sacrifice fly by Sr. LF Alex Kravat (Auburn/Bay City Western).

The game settled down and became a pitchers duel until Hope was able to sctrach across two more runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 3-1 advantage. An error followed by a double scored the first run and then another double gave the Flying Dutchmen the second run of the frame.

After a scoreless inning, Hope broke open the game with four unearned runs in the top of the sixth inning. The Flying Dutchmen did notch three hits in the frame before So. P Matt Launstein (Flushing/Flushing) came in to induce a inning-ending double play.

Alma was unable to muster any sort of a comeback however and the Flying Dutchmen were able to hold on for the first-game victory.

Jock took the loss in 5.1 innings pitched and gave up eight hits, seven runs (two earned) and had five walks to go with two strikeout. Launstein went .2 on the mound, while Jr. P Jean Soucy (La Pocatiere, Quebec/Cardinal-Roy) pitched a scoreless seventh.

The Scots finished with six hits, two by Peczynski and one each by four other players.

Game 2

Hope started quickly in game two off of Alma starting Jr. P Eric Strickler (Lapeer/Lapeer East) by notching three runs on three hits and were helped by two Scots errors to make it a 3-0 game after a half inning. It was a hole that the Scots would not be able to dig out of on this afternoon.

Alma cut the deficit to 3-1 in the bottom of the second, when Fr. RF Pat Finn (Allentown/Almont) singled with one out and moved to third on a single by So. C Doug Walters (Brighton/Brighton). Finn then crossed the plate when Sr. 3B Bryan Goostrey (Jackson/East Jackson) grounded out to second.

As Alma's bats fell silent for the next four innings, Hope scored single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh frames, two more off of Strickler and one off of Launstein, to take a 6-1 advantage into the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Scots, as they have been known to do this season, made the final frame an interesting one. With one out, Finn was hit by a pitch and Walters followed with a walk. After a pop-out put Alma down to their last out, Jr. CF David Carles (Staten Island, NY/Petrides) doubled to left field, knocking in both runners and making it a 6-3 ballgame.

However, Peczynski ended the game with a pop-out to first base and the Flying Dutchmen had their sweep of the day and of the series.

Strickler was the losing pitcher after throwing 5.1 innings, allowing eight hits, five runs (three earned) and one walk to go with four strikeouts. Launstein finished the remaining 1.2 innings and allowed one earned run on one hit, a walk and a strikeout.

At the plate, Finn finished one for two with two runs scored, while Carles had two RBI's and was one for three. In addition, Goostrey had the one RBI after going one for three in the loss.

The Scots will conclude the 2014 regular season next weekend against Albion College. Friday's DH will be at Alma, while Sunday's final twinbill will be down in Albion.