On a glorious sunny and warm Friday afternoon, the Alma College Baseball team hosted Calvin College at Klenk Park in a MIAA Doubleheader. The visiting Knights took game one by a score of 6-1 and then prevailed in the nightcap by a margin of 8-0.

With the two losses, Alma fell to 5-13 in the MIAA and 14-16 overall, while the Knights improved to 13-15 in 2015 and 10-8 in the league.

Game One: Calvin 6, Alma 1

The Knights struck first against Alma starting Jr. P Matt Launstein (Flushing/Flushing) by scoring two runs in the top of the second inning. A leadoff walk and a single got Calvin started in the frame before Launstein recorded a strikeout. However, Nate DeZwaan then doubled for the two-run advantage.

Calvin made it 3-0 in the third on a double, wild pitch and sacrifice fly and then added another in the fifth to increase the advantage to 4-0. With one out, Launstein walked a runner and he advanced to second on a wild pitch. Jr. P Blake Ordiway (Holly/Holly) came in to pitch for the Scots and eventually allowed a sacrifice fly.

In the meantime, the Scots could muster very little offense against Calvin ace P Nate Schepers, who allowed just four hitters in the first six innings. After the Knights added two additional runs in the top of the seventh against Ordiway, the Scots were down to their final three outs.

The never quit Scots opened up the bottom of the frame by Jr. C Doug Walters (Brighton/Brighton) reaching on an error. Jr. 1B Dayne San Miguel (Wheeler/Breckenridge) then singled, advancing Walters to third. A sacrifice fly by So. Pat Finn (Allentown/Almont) scored San Miguel to get Alma on the board at 5-1. However, that was the end of the rally and the Knights earned the four-run game on victory.

Launstein fell to 1-2 on the season after going 4.1 innings, allowing four hits, four walks, four earned runs and recording five strikeouts. Ordiway gave up five hits and two runs in his relief stint. The Scots finished with five singles by five different players offensively.

Game Two: Calvin 8, Alma 0

The second game did not get much better for the Scots, as defensive errors early led to four unearned runs. Alma could not dig out of the hole and eventually dropped an 8-0 decision to the visiting Knights.

After two scoreless innings, Calvin struck for two runs in the top of the third off of Alma Jr. starting P Philip Jock (Wales/Memphis). Then, in the top of the fifth frame, a leadoff error by the Scots led to more runs off of Jock that were unearned and the home team had a 4-0 deficit.

Meanwhile, offensively, Alma got their leadoff batter on base in three different innings, but in all three instances, the next hitter grounded into a rally ending double play. Then, in the top of the sixth inning, the Knights struck for four more runs to take a commanding 8-0 lead.

In that sixth frame, Sr. P Roderick MacNeil (Brethren/Brethren) went to the mound in relief of Jock and had a tough outing. Another defensive error didn't help the cause, but MacNeil only pitched .1 of an inning and allowed three hits and four runs (three earned) with a wild pitch. So. P Alex Valasek (Saginaw/Nouvel Catholic Central) threw the final .2 of the frame.

There was no comeback in store for the Scots as they were unable to dent the Calvin pitching staff and the Knights recorded the final six outs to preserve the eight run victory.

Jock gave up five hits, four runs (none earned) with five walks and four strikeouts in his time on the mound and fell to 3-5 on the season. Offensively, three different players had a single for the Scots and for the day, the team notched just eight total hits (all singles).

The two teams play again on Monday afternoon in Grand Rapids, with first pitch scheduled for 2:00 p.m.