HAMMOND, Ind. – The Parkside baseball team finished up their four-game weekend against Purdue Northwest with a split on Sunday, where the Rangers won game one 9-4 behind a big five-run sixth inning but the Pride came back to win game two 11-3.
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In game one, the Rangers put up one run in each the first and second inning and scored a pair in the third to give the team a 4-2 lead after three innings. In the first inning,
Hunter Weddel and
Lovell Chandler drew back-to-back walks and
Domenic Hammudeh singled to load the bases. After a foulout and a flyout, the Green & White plated the first run of the game thanks to a wild pitch. In the second,
Nick Sramek laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to score
Justin Bennett.
In the two-run third inning, the Rangers again loaded the bases and
Dominic Esposito scored Chandler on a sacrifice fly while Bennett singled to score Hammudeh and make it 4-2 Rangers.
After the Pride scored one in the bottom of the fifth, the Rangers exploded for five runs in the sixth. A pair of runs came in to score on a PNW error and Chandler followed that with a two-run triple down the right field line and came around to score on a wild pitch.
While the Rangers only had five hits, the team was extremely patient at the plate on their way to drawing eight walks while being hit by the pitch twice in game one. Chandler had a nice game, as the redshirt-sophomore went 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs in the No. 2 spot. Bennett finished with a hit, a pair of walks and two runs.
Nicholas Rana went 5.2 innings to earn the win, improving his record to 1-1 this season. Weddel finished out the final 1.1 innings without allowing a baserunner.
In game two, the Ranger jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning. Weddel led the inning off with a single and later stole second base. He came in to score on
Troy Bittenbender's RBI single. Esposito plated Hammudeh with an RBI single and Bittenbender came in to score on a wild pitch.
The Pride scored two runs in the third, four in the fourth, two in the seventh and three in the eighth. Both Bittenbender and Esposito finished 1-for-4 with an RBI in game two.
Parkside will open GLVC play next weekend, where the team plays Quincy on the road on Friday, March 10 and Saturday, March 11.