ADA, Ohio – Looking to close out their final non-conference road trip of the season, the Alma College baseball team battled against the Ohio Northern University Polar Bears, who received votes in the previous d3baseball.com national polls. After splitting the opening doubleheader on Saturday, the Scots came out of Ada with a series win and momentum as they head into the opening weekend of conference play next weekend with an 11-5 win.
Play on the diamond stayed mostly tame for the opening innings of play as neither team broke the stalemate early on. Alma secured the first runs of the game in the fourth inning as the bases became loaded on a nit by pitch, a single and an error. With the bases loaded, Cole Grunwald placed a single into left field, scoring Giuseppe Sapienza and Cameron Bleasdale for the first runs of the game. Kaden Warren singled right after Grunwald, scoring Cade Sutherland to give Alma a 3-0 lead halfway through four.
Ohio Northern ended their silence in the bottom of the inning sending one run across the plate to cut the deficit down to two. Shortly after, in the fifth inning, the Polar Bears scored another four runs to take their first lead of the game, sending the Scots to the sixth trailing by two, 5-3.
The Scots were held quiet for a majority of the rest of the game until the ninth inning proved to be lethal for the Scots and an explosion of runs came across home plate. Grunwald kicked the final three outs off with a single, reaching first. Kaden Warren then tied the game for Alma with a big blast over the left field wall, the first home run of the freshman's career, bringing the score to 5-5. Alma's big bats didn't stop there as Justin Diaz stepped into the box and sent a swing of the bat passed the left field wall as well for back-to-back homers and the lead for Alma. Diaz's blast is the freshman's third of the season. Following the home runs, Brant Goodpaster singled to right field. Goodpaster scored on the next play as Braylon Ryan doubled to left field, sending across the Scots seventh run of the game, now leading by two. Bleasdale followed behind with a sacrifice bunt to advance Ryan to third. Sutherland stepped up next and was stuck by a pitch to put runners on the corners with only one out. Alexander Kavalick tallied the Scots second out with a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Ryan in the process. Sutherland then stole second, followed by Kyler Warren drawing a walk and Grunwald also being hit by a pitch to load the bases again. Kaden Warren reached first on a fielding error, scoring all three runners ahead of him before getting thrown out at second to end the inning with the Scots leading 11-5.
Alma's pitching staff was able to close out the final three outs and give Alma a series win over a team that was on many voter's radars as being a top team in the division.
Tyler Sparks went for five innings on the bump striking out two in his time. Brady Sager and Litwiller saw action for an inning each, with Litwiller collecting a whiff. Ryan Koob picked up the win to move to 1-2 on the season while Fistler closed the game out, striking out one as well.
Alma will now return home for a non-conference home game on Tuesday, March 24th, the first non-conference home game in a handful of years. First pitch is slated for 3:00 PM against Aquinas College for the Scots home opener.
