Jackets swept by Rose-Hulman in Sunday twin bill

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance Yellow Jackets suffered two defeats, 14-1 and 12-5, to the Rose-Hulman Fightin' Engineers on Sunday to complete a weekend sweep for the visitors playing at Defiance High School on Sunday. 

With the losses, DC dropped to 6-26 for the season and 1-17 in the conference while Rose-Hulman helped their conference tournament chances by improving to 21-14 and 12-6 within the HCAC.

Game 1 - Rose-Hulman 14, Defiance 1

A pair of big innings and three big flies demanded attention during Rose-Hulman's Game 1 win, but it was due to the little things as the Fightin' Engineers made DC pay for 10 walks. 

Starting with a five-run first inning, Defiance starting pitcher Blake Bowman was burned by two free passes that set up the game's first score on Connor O'Connell's RBI single. Following a third walk to load the bases, Colton Brown cleared the bases with a grand slam on his second homer of the weekend. Rose-Hulman loaded the bases later in the inning before DC made the move to the bullpen for Logan Kunkel, who recorded the final out of the inning.

Kunkel stabilized the pitching staff for a couple of innings and retired 5 of 6 to start his outing. He surrendered a walk to break that trend in the third before Ryland Hixon deposited a two-run homer over the left field fence. A triple, single, and walk led to the hook for Kunkel. The Fightin' Engineers greeted Gabriel Kelly with a single and a three-run homer hit by Dalton Busboom to make the third frame a seven-run inning. Bowman and Kunkel were responsible for five runs apiece while Kelly allowed two more in the fifth and ate up the last 4.2 innings on the hill.

The Yellow Jackets ended the shutout in the bottom of the fifth by positioning runners on the corners with no outs thanks to Garret Long's leadoff double and a single from Alex Rodriguez III. Logan Hudson was called upon to pinch hit and he worked an RBI groundout to score Long for his first career RBI.

Game 2 - Rose-Hulman 12, Defiance 5

For the third straight game in the series, Rose-Hulman jumped out to a sizable, early lead. Starting with a first-inning homer to left by Peter Rogers, the Fightin' Engineers pushed four more across in the second including Kade Kline's two-run double that hopped over the fence.

Donovan Armstrong relieved Johnny Hammerstein during the second inning and struck out his first hitter to keep the score at 5-0. The lefty posted two scoreless innings before ceding a pair of runs in the fifth. Tyler Sickmiller threw scoreless relief in the sixth, but he surrendered four hits and a pair of runs in the seventh. Jeremy Russo pitched a scoreless eighth and Greg Kita relieved him for the final two outs of the ninth as three came in during the inning.

DC posted an unearned run in the fourth inning, which Tim Bobek pushed across on an RBI groundout. Murdock led off and reached base due to a throwing error by Rose-Hulman's third baseman and advanced to third on a double into the right field corner by Mitchell Roever. The Jackets filled the bases with one out during the fifth but were turned away by Engineers' starter Brady Strawmyer struck out the next two hitters to escape the jam. Strawmyer finished with 10 punch outs through five one-run innings for Rose-Hulman.

Gunner Gregg trimmed Rose-Hulman's lead down to 9-5 with a three-run homer in the eighth inning, which was his fourth of the season. His big hit finished off a four-run inning by the Jackets which also included an infield, RBI single by Jacob Hild.

Long had a strong day at the plate for Defiance after coming off the bench in Game 1 and starting Game 2 in left field. He was one of two Yellow Jackets with a hit in each game and finished 3-for-5 with a walk. Murdock was the other to notch hits in both contests, finishing 3-for-7 for the afternoon. Gephart extended his on-base streak to 23 games with a single in the first game and a fifth-inning walk in the second affair.

UP NEXT

The Yellow Jackets host Ohio Northern for a non-conference twin bill on Tuesday beginning at 2:30 p.m. at Rutter Field.

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