Baseball drops pair of games to Cleary

(Howell, MI) - The Rochester Christian baseball team headed to Howell, Michigan, for their second doubleheader of the weekend, this time taking on the Cougars from Cleary. The Warriors saw an early lead in game one, before falling 7-2 to the Cougars and then the Warriors would fall, 5-3, after attempting a late comeback.

GAME 1 - CLEARY 7, ROCHESTER CHRISTIAN 2

Dakota Shafer (2-2) earned the loss on the mound, allowing five runs on six hits.

Cleary grabbed the first run of the game following a balk in the bottom of the first inning. 

Aiden Alspaugh put the Warriors on the board in the third inning with a triple to right-center field, scoring both Cael Kuzinski and Jayden Peterson, making it 2-1. The RCU lead would not last long as Cleary put up two runs in the bottom of the third to retake the lead for good in the game. 

Cleary added some insurance runs in the fourth and sixth innings to put the game out of reach for the Warriors to come back. 

Landon Fahey and Conner Foreman closed out the final three innings. Both relief pitchers allowed one run on two hits. Fahey struck out one batter, and Foreman struck out a pair. 

GAME 2 - CLEARY 5, ROCHESTER CHRISTIAN 3

Joseph Arends (0-1) opened the first four innings of game #2, allowing four runs on four hits with a trio of strikeouts. 

The Warriors got on the board right away in the first inning with Cael Kuzinski starting off with getting hit by a pitch and Nathaniel Crane hitting a double. Aiden Alspaugh would score Kuzinski with a sacrifice fly. The RCU lead would not last long as Cleary tagged the Warriors for three runs in the bottom half of the inning. 

Cleary continued scoring with a run in both the third and fifth innings to make it a 5-1 score. 

After a couple of innings with the Warriors stranding runners on base, RCU got a run across in the seventh with Nathaniel Crane earning an RBI, scoring Jayden Peterson. RCU followed it up in the eighth with Issander Vega stealing third and then advancing home following a throw down to first base. The Warriors threatened to score in the ninth as they stranded two runners on base.  

Christian Rivera pitched the fifth and sixth innings, allowing three hits and one run. Joey Wagner and Keaton Diserens both had an inning pitched with a strikeout. 

UP NEXT

The Warriors are back in action on Tuesday, March 24, when they head to Spring Arbor for a single game starting at 2 PM.