BEAVER FALLS, Pa. – The Geneva College baseball team dropped a pair of matches Wednesday afternoon to Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) rival Grove City. Despite a Geneva lead that lasted three innings in game one, the Wolverines never took their foot off the gas once they got going, handily securing a 20-6 win in the opening match. The second game saw a fierce pitching battle, but Grove City once again prevailed, defeating Geneva 7-1. The pair of losses drops Geneva to 12-16 overall, 5-7 in PAC play.
Senior Timothy Munz was hot from the mound early, striking out two of his first three batters. That sent a surge into the batter's box for Geneva, where a sacrifice fly from freshman Noah Avey brought junior Tim Hermansen, the leadoff batter, in to score in the bottom of the first. The Golden Tornadoes held a 1-0 advantage over Grove City all the way into the fourth inning, where Grove City would see their first five hits of the game all come at once. After mixing in a couple of fielding miscues, the Wolverines pulled ahead 6-1 going into the fifth inning.
A quick Wolverine home run bagged two more runs in the fifth, and a sixth inning that saw seven Grove City hits would just about take the GTs out of contention, facing a 14-1 deficit.
Geneva did, however, try to prove the odds wrong in the bottom of the sixth, as they took advantage of three walks, two errors, and a hit-by-pitch. Avey struck again with an RBI-single, followed by a line drive to center from senior Adrian Tapia. The Gold and White eventually scored five runs, but the Wolverines had built up too much of a safety net for themselves. They would add to the lead with a 2-run home run and an RBI-triple in the seventh, before the mercy rule ended the game after seven innings. Grove City put up 17 hits compared to Geneva's nine. After Munz wrapped up his stint of five innings, the Geneva mound was split amongst Hunter Smith, Ethan Blair, and Cael Brandt.
Game two saw fast-paced innings, with several going three up and three down. That was especially the case for Grove City pitching, which carried a perfect game into the fifth inning. A solo home run and a pair of singles got the Wolverines on the board in the top of the third, 2-0. That was followed by yet another home run in the fourth, this time scoring three.
Grove City held a 5-0 lead through a defensive lockdown until Brandt scored from third on a failed attempt by a Grove City infielder to convert a double play. Unfortunately, Geneva finished with just this lone run, allowing two more in the ninth. Grove City's Evan Umland won the game from the mound, pitching a full nine inning game. That's not to take away from sophomore Zach Lemansky, though, who struck out six batters through eight innings, firing in 125 pitches from the mound in a very hard-fought loss.
Geneva, which falls to 6-5 at home, will be right back at 33rd Street Field tomorrow, hosting a standalone match versus out-of-conference Hiram College at 4:00 p.m.
Through purposeful learning in a community reflecting the full spectrum of God's kingdom, a Geneva College experience inspires students to discover a faith-life calling in service to God and neighbor. Offering 195+ traditional undergraduate majors and programs, fully online Adult Degree Programs and high-demand graduate degrees, Geneva's programs are recognized for their high quality and affordability. Geneva was founded and is governed by the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) and is a founding member of both the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) and the International Association for Christian Education (IACE).
