April 6, 2001
BASEBALL
ALBION -- Calvin remained on top of the MIAA standings by once again going to
the strong right arm of senior pitcher Mike Ott and the big left-handed stick of
senior first baseman Aaron Wiers (Chicago, IL) in beating Albion 6-4 in the
opener of a three-game conference series.
The victory allowed the Knights to improve to 9-7 overall and to 4-0 in the MIAA
while Albion dropped to 8-11 overall and to 1-3 in the MIAA. The Knights remain
one game ahead of second place Alma which improved to 3-1 in the MIAA with a
10-5 victory over Adrian Friday.
Ott (Grand Rapids Union) threw eight and-a-third innings of six-hit ball to pick
up his second MIAA victory of the year while Wiers belted a three-run homer in
the third inning to stake Calvin to a 4-2 lead.
Albion jumped on the board first using a two-run homer in the second inning by
Peter Sykes to take a 2-0 lead but the Knights came back with four runs in the
top of the third with junior Mark Jansen (Denver, CO) driving in Calvin's first
run on a sacrifice fly with the bases-loaded. With two outs and runners on
second and third, Wiers then blasted his second homerun of the season over the
right field fence to put the Knights up two runs.
Calvin picked up another run in the fifth as senior Ross Hunderman (Holland
Christian) led off with a single and later scored from third base on an infield
single by junior Andrew Drake (Marion, OH). Albion went to the long ball to
score again in the sixth as Adam Goss smashed a solo homer to left with two outs
to close to within 5-4.
Calvin picked up an insurance run in the top of the ninth as Jansen delivered
his second sacrifice fly of the game, driving a ball to right field with one out
that scored senior Zac Jackson (Kinsman, OH) who had led off the inning with a
single.
In the bottom half of the inning, Sykes reached base for Albion on a one-out
double. Junior Matt Schmitz (Ionia) then came on in relief of Ott and promptly
closed out the game on a pair of groundouts to record his second save of the
year.
Calvin picked up nine hits in the win with Jackson collecting two hits for the
second consecutive game while Hunderman went 2-for-3 with two runs scored while
Wiers was 2-for-3 with three RBI's.
Calvin will close out the doubleheader with the Britons Saturday in a
doubleheader slated to start at noon at Albion's Joranko Field.
OTT AND WIERS FEATURED IN GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
A feature story written by Grand Rapids Press columnist Howie Beardsley on Mike
Ott and Aaron Wiers is located on the Booth Newspaper Web site at:
http://www.mlive.com/sports/index.ssf?/sports/stories/20010406ghbcol06104804.frm
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