Manchester athletics photo

NORTH MANCEHSTER, Ind. – Manchester University Head Baseball Coach Rick Espeset earned his 600th career coaching victory on Wednesday as the Spartans defeated Earlham College 9-7.

Espeset, a six-time Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year honoree, is in his 25h season at the helm of the Manchester baseball program. Coach Espeset has guided Manchester to six HCAC Tournament titles and five HCAC Regular Season championships. Coach Espeset has also taken the Spartans to a pair of NCAA Division III College World Series (2004 & 2013).

Earlham broke into the scoring column first on Wednesday, scoring a single run in the top of the first. Manchester responded immediately with in the home half of the opening frame as senior Michael Pinarski (Goshen, Ind./Goshen) crushed an opposite field home run to right-center.

The Black and Gold plated four runs in the bottom of the 3rd inning. A wild pitch allowed Paul Barrow (Bloomington, Ind./Bloomington North) to score easily from third. A couple of Quaker errors allowed the next three runners to score.

Manchester took an 8-1 lead after scoring three more runs in the 4th. Austin Knowles (Nassau, Bahamas/Athens Christian (Ga.)) hit a run-scoring single to left. Jacob Van Pelt (Parker City, Ind./Delta) drove home a run with a single to right center. Zach White (Logansport, Ind./Logansport) capped the inning with an RBI groundout to first.

Earlham made things interesting late in Wednesday's game. The Quakers struck for three runs in both the top of the 7th and 9th innings. Following a home run off the bat of Maxwell Fries in the 9th, Austin Kresl (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) was called in from the pen to close things out for the Black & Gold.

Kresl allowed a pair of runners but was able to induce an easy groundout and picked off EC's Christian Lancianese for the game's final outs. He earned his second save of the season.

For Manchester, Jacob Van Pelt improved to 3-1 on the mound this spring. Van Pelt pitched into the 7th inning. He struck out seven Quakers.

Austin Knowles, Michael Pinarski, and Paul Barrow all had two hits apiece for the Spartans. Zach White and Jacob Van Pelt both had two RBI on the day.

Manchester improved to 10-14 with the victory. Earlham dropped to 15-10.

MU will host Transylvania University on Saturday, April 17, at 10 am and 1 pm at Gratz Field.