CKSR (Baseball Remains Alive in MIAA Tournament - Softball Players Receive All-MIAA Honors)

CALVIN KNIGHT SPORTS REPORT FOR MAY 8, 2014

Baseball Teams Remains Alive in MIAA Tournament
Softball Players Receive All-MIAA Honors

BASEBALL
Adrian 8, Calvin 7
Calvin 5, Hope 3

ADRIAN - The Calvin baseball team remains alive in the double-elimination MIAA Tournament. On Thursday afternoon, Calvin fell to host Adrian 8-7 in 10 innings in a winner's bracket final but came back to hand rival Hope a 5-3 defeat in an elimination game Thursday evening.

Calvin (28-15) will face Adrian Friday at noon. If Calvin can win that game, the Knights will force a second and deciding game for the MIAA Tournament title.

In the game one loss to Adrian (29-13), Calvin fell behind 5-1 as the Bulldogs scored five unanswered runs in the top of the third inning. The Knights fought back with three runs in the bottom of the third as senior Matt Schepel (Grand Rapids/Grand Rapids Christian HS) drove in a run with an RBI double and junior Peter Cupery (Holland/Holland Christian HS) drove in two more with a single with two on.

Calvin gained a 6-5 lead with two runs in the bottom of the fourth with juniors Grant Van Putten (Holland/Holland Christian HS) and Ben Wohl (Canton/Plymouth HS) delivered run-scoring singles.

The Knights tacked on an additional run in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single by freshman Colt Wolfe (Eaton Rapids/Eaton Rapids HS).

Adrian rallied for a pair of runs off Calvin reliever Grant VanderWall (Wyoming/South Christian HS) in the top of the eighth to tie the score 7-7. The Knights had a prime opportunity to take the lead in the bottom half of the eighth as the Knights placed runners at second and third with no outs and later loaded the bases with one out but could not score as the Adrian pitching staff struck out three Calvin batters in the inning.

Neither team was able to score in the ninth, sending the contest into extra-innings. Adrian then broke through in the top of the 10th, using a single, a sacrifice bunt and a single to take an 8-7 lead. The Knights then went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 10th as Adrian closed out the win.

Sophomore Kyle Wasserberger (Spring Lake/Spring Lake HS) took the loss for Calvin to fall to 3-1 on the year. Junior Nate Schepers (Holland/Holland Christian HS) went the first six innings for the Knights with VanderWall and senior Jeff Victor (Holland Christian HS) also seeing time in relief.

Wohl went 3-for-6 in the loss while Van Putten, Schepel, Wolfe and sophomore Travis Kraai (Grand Rapids/Grand Rapids Christian HS) all had two hits.

Calvin then had to wait for its next opponent which turned out to be the Flying Dutchmen of Hope who eliminated Kalamazoo 10-3 in a loser's bracket game after the conclusion of Calvin's game with Adrian.

Fresh off its win over the Hornets, Hope struck for two runs on three hits off Calvin starter Grant VanderWall who went back to the hill after tossing 1.2 innings of relief in the loss to Adrian.

VanderWall settled in from that point however, holding Hope hitless over the next five innings.

In the meantime, the Calvin offense began to peck away at the Dutchmen lead as senior Kyle Spoelma (Grand Rapids/South Christian HS) doubled in the third and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Wohl.

Cupery then tied the game 2-2 with a solo homerun to lead off the top of the sixth. In the top of the seventh, the Knights put together a game-changing two-out rally as Van Putten and Wohl singled. Schepel then stepped up and clouted a mammoth three-run homer to straightaway center to give Calvin a 5-2 lead. The home run was the 17th of Schepel's collegiate career, moving him into second place on the Calvin career list.

Hope touched up Calvin relief pitcher Ben Guilfoyle (Romeoville, IL/Plainfield East HS) for a run in the bottom of the eighth but did no further damage. Victor came on to close in the bottom of the ninth and with one out, Hope placed runners on first and second. Hope's Ben Pearson then hit a shot that deflected off Victor to Calvin shortstop Jalen Bouma (Ann Arbor/Ann Arbor Huron HS). Bouma was able to gun the ball to first to get the second out of the inning and Wolfe, playing first base, was able to rip off a throw down to third to nail the Hope runner attempting to advance to end the game.

VanderWall (3-5) picked up the win in six solid innings of work while Victor recorded the save - his sixth of the season. Sophomore Jordan VanderWall helped his older brother out by going 3-for-4 at the plate while Van Putten went 3-for-5 and Wohl and Cupery both 2-for-4.

Van Putten swiped his 32nd base of the season in the win, breaking his own Calvin single-season record in the process. Schepel drew two walks in the loss to Adrian and two walks in the win over Hope to bring his career total to 108, moving him past Ben Cok and into first place on the Calvin career list. Schepel also moved past Cok for the Calvin single-season record for walks as he built his season total to 33, one more than Cok's total of 32 set last year.

At 28-15, Calvin has now matched the second-highest single-season win total in program history.
For links to live stats, live stream video feeds and tournament information, visit the Adrian College website at: https://adrian.prestosports.com/sports/m-basebl/2013-14/miaa_tournament_central

SOFTBALL

Three members of the Calvin softball team have received All-MIAA honors. Senior Lina Avila has been named to the All-MIAA first team while senior Ashley Jakus and freshman Cassidy Vlot have been named to the All-MIAA second team.
A native of Lakewood, California, Avila (Valley Christian High School) is making her second appearance on the All-MIAA first team. She split time between designated player and first base this year while also filling in at pitcher for a handful of games. In conference play, she batted .389 with two home runs, nine runs batted in and nine runs scored. One of her most memorable plays was a walk-off squeeze bunt that she delivered in the bottom of the seventh in a 4-3 win at Adrian. She later belted a two-run homer in a 5-1 MIAA Tournament victory over nationally-ranked Trine University.

Jakus and Vlot are receiving All-MIAA second team accolades for the first time.

Jakus is from Muskegon and a graduate of Muskegon Reeths-Puffer High School. An outfielder, batted .389 in league play this spring with 21 runs scored and eight stolen bases. She tied for fourth in the league in runs scored and was second in stolen bases. She also did not commit an error in 18 fielding chances and had two outfield assists.

Vlot is from Chowchilla, California. She is a graduate of Chowhilla High School. Vlot split time between the pitcher's circle and first base. In league play, she was 3-2 as a pitcher with a 2.76 earned run average. At the plate, she batted .321 with a pair of home runs and seven runs batted in. Her most dramatic moment of the season came in a 7-6 victory at Alma when she belted a three-run, two-out walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh. She later pitched a complete-game victory in a 5-1 first round MIAA Tournament victory over nationally-ranked Trine.

Under the direction of first-year head coach Tim Syrek, Calvin finished the 2014 season with an overall record of 22-15. The Knights finished fourth in the MIAA regular season standings with a 9-7 conference record and cracked the NCAA III Regional rankings twice during the spring season. Calvin hit the 20-win plateau for the first time since the 2005 season and also reached the MIAA Tournament for the first time since 2005.
Received on Thu May 8 23:30:57 2014