LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Spalding baseball team split their doubleheader with Wooster Saturday winning game one, 15-7, but falling in the nightcap, 5-4, to move to 4-5 on the season.
Game One: Spalding 15 – Wooster 7
The Spalding bats lit up the scoreboard in game winning, 15-7.
Matthew McDowell went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate driving in one run and scoring three.
Ethan Tuttle was 3-for-5 with two doubles and 5 RBIs and
Dryden Schroeder and
Hunter Strong each had a pair of hits, with Strong driving in four runs and Schroeder driving in three.
Preseason All-American pitcher,
Peyton Hood, picked up his first win of the season holding Scot batters to 7 hits, 5 runs, 2 earned, while striking out 5 batters in 5.2 innings pitched.
The Scots got out in front scoring two first inning runs to take a 2-0 lead. Spalding responded with a three-run bottom of the third to pull in front when a
Michael Speck double scored
Marcus Collins, and later in the inning
Ethan Tuttle doubled driving in Speck and McDowell. The Scots tied it, 3-3, with a run in the top of the fourth. However, the Spalding bats heated up in the fifth and sixth inning combing for 12 runs. A
Hunter Strong two-RBI double highlighted the 5
th inning, while a pair of two-run home runs by Dyden Schroeder and Strong highlighted the sixth putting Spalding in command, 15-5, heading into the seventh. The Scots would score a pair of runs in the eighth, but the Eagles lead was too much to overcome.
Game Two: Wooster 5 – Spalding 4
The Eagles could not complete the rally in game two falling, 5-4. Again, McDowell led Spalding batters going 2-for-3, with a double and two RBIs.
Garrett Mathews suffered the loss despite limiting the Scots to 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 earned, in 3.1 innings pitched.
McDowell's two-run double in the second put Spalding in front, 2-0, but the Scots scored five unanswered runs over the next three innings and held a 5-2 lead through 6.5 innings. Spalding cut the deficit to two runs in the bottom of the sixth on a
Nicholas Salas home run. A pivotal play in the game came in the seventh when Speck was hit by a pitch, but then picked off at first. A McDowell walk followed, and Tuttle tripled down the left field line scoring McDowell from first for what would have been the game-tying run if not for the pickoff at first leaving SU trailing by one run, 5-4. A Schroeder pop-up ended the inning leaving SU a run short heading into the eighth. After a scoreless eighth, the Eagles had three outs remaining. With one out, McDowell singled and Everett Cogan was brought on to pinch run. However, Cogan was picked off at first and Tuttle struck out to end the game.
Up Next
Spalding hosts Hanover College at Derby City Field Wednesday, March 9 at 5:00 p.m. ET before heading to Florida to play in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.