Baseball team splits doubleheader at Albion

ALBION, Mich. – The Olivet College baseball team split a Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) doubleheader with Albion College this afternoon at Frank Joranko Field in Albion. After losing the opener, 6-1, the Comets gained the split by winning the nightcap, 15-2.

In the first game, the Britons scored twice in the third inning. Olivet got one run back in the top half of the fourth. Albion added two insurance runs in both the fifth and sixth innings.

The Comets were held to five hits, including three from sophomore leadoff batter Beau Langs. Senior Andrew Brawley drove in the only run. Junior Jake Ball allowed four earned runs on eight hits in five innings to suffer his first pitching loss of the season.

Olivet scored a season-high 15 runs and tied its season-high with 16 hits in the nightcap. The Comets sent nine players to the plate in the first inning and pushed across four runs. After Albion scored once in the bottom half of the inning, Olivet scored twice in the top half of the second.

The Britons came back with a run in the last half of the inning to trim their deficit to 6-2. The Comets then scored nine unanswered runs – four in the third, three in sixth and two in the seventh – to end the game.

All 16 Olivet hits were singles. Langs had three more hits, while Tom Kort also collected three hits. Brawley, Peter Panos and Randy Young each had two hits. Brawley, Kort and Jonny Zawacki finished with two RBI apiece. Jay Magro went the distance on the mound, giving up the two earned runs on five hits.

The two teams are scheduled to complete the four-game MIAA series with a doubleheader tomorrow at the Cutler Athletic Complex in Olivet, starting at 1 p.m.