The Knights baseball team had a successful week on the field last week, going 5-1 and improving their overall record to 15-18 and 14-9 in the MIAA conference.
The teams needs one more win to reach the MIAA tournament.
Calvin started the week strong, taking two from Alma Monday afternoon at their home field. After dropping one of their games to the Scots last week in the miserable weather, the Knights came back and overcame 4-3 and 13-5 under sunny skies. In game one, senior Ben Cok smashed a walk-off single with the bases-loaded in the bottom of the seventh to lead the Knights to the victory. Junior Jack Jorgenson pitched for the win in relief.
In game two, Calvin tore apart the Scots’ pitcher, gaining 16 hits. Sophomore Grant VanPutten had a great day with three stolen, which put VanPutten’s at 41 for his career and moved him into first place on the Calvin career list for stolen bases, moving past Kevin VanDuyn who held the previous record with 40.
The Knights hosted another conference game Friday afternoon, where they split with the Britons of Albion College. Albion stole game one 4-0. Calvin then won a thriller in game two, coming from behind twice and then winning on a walk-off single from freshman Jalen Bouma in extra innings 6-5.
“Some highlights from this past week were the two walk-off hits that we had,” said junior Grant VanderWall. “It was nice to see Ben and Jalen come up big in clutch situations.”
Undeterred by their split with Albion the day before, the Knights came out Saturday morning and took two from Albion, moving them to fourth place in the league standing and gaining on Trine’s third place position. Calvin smashed 19 hits in game one. Sophomores Nate Schepers and Ben Guilfoyle both pitched in on the shutout with Schepers picking up his third victory of the year. Jalen Bouma went 3-for-5 with three runs batted in while sophomore Ben Wohl also chipped in with three hits. Collecting two hits apiece for the Knights were senior Tyler Tos, Grant VanPutten and freshman J.R. Frederick.
In game two, junior Cory Laster picked up his third win of the year. Laster struck out one and scattered five hits. Wohl had two of Calvin’s eight hits of game two, while freshman Travis Kraai drove in a pair of runs.
“If we continue to play the way we are right now I fully expect us to make a run down the stretch,” says Tos. “We have a conference game against Alma on Monday and then round out the rest of our conference schedule as we play Hope four times this weekend. We just need to come out each game with intensity and the right approach to get the win and that should put us in the MIAA tournament, which has been our goal all season long.”
The Knights come back to action Monday afternoon against the Alma Scots.
