By John Leerar

CALEDONIA - The Calvin College baseball team opened up Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAA) play Friday night with a game against the Kalamazoo Hornets at Davenport's Farmers Athletic Complex. The Knights were victorious by a score of 9-3. With Davenport playing a doubleheader in the afternoon, the Knights' game didn't start until just after 8:00. Due to the time constraints of the complex, the second half of the originally scheduled doubleheader has been postponed. A makeup date has not yet been finalized.

Junior Grant Van Putten (Holland/Holland Christian HS) got things started off for the Knights, ripping the first pitch he saw to center field for a single. At the end of the top half of the first, Calvin was up 4-0, helped by Junior Peter Cupery (Holland/Holland Christian HS) driving a two-run double to the left-field fence. The Knights added to their lead with another run in the top of the second. Kalamazoo responded with a run in the bottom of the inning to bring the score to 5-1.

The scoring stopped until the bottom of the fifth, when the Hornets brought across another two runs. Calvin led 5-3 after five innings.

Calvin struck back in the top of the seventh. After loading the bases with nobody out, a walk, a sac fly, a sac bunt, and a bloop single to right field brought four more runs across the plate for the Knights. A double play and a strikeout sent the Hornets down in order in the bottom of the inning, giving Calvin the 9-3 victory.

Cupery started and earned the win for the Knights, giving up three earned runs in 4.1 innings of work. Cupery also went 2-3 with 2 RBI at the plate.

Seniors Jack Jorgenson (Milwaukee, WI/Milwaukee Lutheran HS) and Matt Schepel (Grand Rapids/Grand Rapids Christian HS) were also contributors to Calvin's offense, with Jorgenson scoring two runs and Schepel driving in two as well as scoring twice.

With the win, Calvin improves to 2-2 on the year and 1-0 in the MIAA, while Kalamazoo drops to 0-4 on the year, 0-1 in the MIAA.

The Knights are not scheduled to play until their spring break trip to Orlando, Fla., where they will play the Pilgrims of New England College in a doubleheader, scheduled to start at noon. However, makeup games with Kalamazoo could potentially take place next prior to the spring trip.