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Adrian Box Score

Franklin Box Score

WESTFIELD, Ind. (Mar. 15, 2015) – After being shut out at the hands of Adrian College for the second straight day in the opener, the North Central College baseball team bounced back from its opening 5-0 loss, as the Cardinal bats came alive in game two, running away with a 11-6 win over Franklin College.
 
North Central's offensive struggles from yesterday's loss to Adrian carried over to this afternoon, as the Cardinals only mustered up three hits while being shut out for the second straight contest.
 
Adrian (7-3) notched the game's first run in the bottom of the second inning, as Drew Shutes drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored later in the inning on a fielder's choice.
 
Bulldog starter Jordan Frayer kept the Cardinal offense off balance all afternoon, allowing just two hits over his eight innings of work, striking out five and walking none.
 
Still holding a 1-0 lead after seven innings played, the Adrian offense went off in the bottom of the eighth, stringing together five hits while taking advantage of a Cardinal error to plate four runs and take a commanding 5-0 lead.
 
Tommy Eng entered in the ninth for Adrian and allowed a leadoff base hit to Richard Concialdi, but forced a double play two batters later ending the contest.
 
North Central starter Jake Rone was credited with the loss, tossing 7 1/3 innings, giving up three earned runs on three hits, striking out three and walking seven batters.
 
The Cardinals (4-4) bounced back nicely in game two against Franklin (5-4) as the offense came alive to the tune of 13 hits to plate 11 runs, scoring in six of nine innings.
 
Franklin jumped on the board first, as Jameson Brock led off the bottom of the first with a leadoff triple and scored on a Mitch Schuman RBI ground out.
 
North Central took the lead in the top of the second, scoring a pair of unearned runs, taking advantage of two Grizzlies errors in the inning.
 
In the top of the third, Sam Carius tripled with one out in the inning and quickly came around to score on a Nick Brandtsacrifice fly, giving the Cardinals a 3-1 lead.
 
North Central added two more runs in the top of the fourth as Rone singled to leadoff the inning and was promptly sent home on a Vito DeRango double the following batter.  After DeRango advanced to third on a groundout, Zach Jarosz increased the lead 5-1 with a sacrifice fly to center field.
 
The Grizzlies rallied with four runs in the bottom half of the inning, putting together four hits and a hit by pitch to quickly knot the score 5-5.
 
The tie ballgame did not last long as North Central responded with three runs in the top of the fifth.  Brandt started the rally with a one-out hit by pitch, followed by a Sam Klein single.
 
With two on and one out in the inning, Joe Paparone drove Brandt and Klein home with a two-RBI triple, and would later come around to score on a RBI groundout off the bat of Rone.
 
The top of the seventh started much of the same way as the fifth for the Cardinals, as Brandt led off with a single and Klein reached on an error to start the inning.  Paparone once again stepped to the plate, this time singling home Brandt, while DeRango drove home Klein with a sacrifice fly to left, putting North Central ahead 10-5.
 
North Central added an unearned insurance run in the top of the eighth, while Drew Sutton closed out the final 2 2/3 innings, giving up just one hit while striking out a pair.
 
Evan Blunk earned the win on the mound, giving up six earned runs over 6 1/3 innings pitched, striking out four and walking one.
 
The top six batters in the Cardinal lineup combined to go 12-of-26 (.462) from the plate in game two while scoring all 11 runs, led by DeRango's 3-for-4 effort, driving in a pair of runs and scoring twice.
 
Carius finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored, while Paparone added a pair of hits and three RBI.  Rone also added two hits to go along with two runs scored and a RBI, while Klein was 2-for-5 with two runs scored.
 
North Central takes part in its annual Spring Break trip Mar. 21-25 at the RussMatt Invite.  The Cardinals take on Union College to start the trip on Saturday, Mar. 21, with game one of the doubleheader slated for 3 p.m. (ET) at Lake Myrtle Park in Auburndale, Fla.