ADRIAN, Mich.--Senior pitcher Tommy Parsons broke his own school season strikeouts benchmark, sophomore Brady Wood went 2-for-5 with four runs batted in, and the nationally-ranked Adrian College baseball team opened the 2018 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Tournament with a 9-2 victory over visiting Calvin College on Wednesday.
THE BASICS
= Final Scorelines: # 1 seed Adrian College 9-13-0; #4 seed Calvin College 2-9-3
= Location: Nicolay Field, Adrian, Mich.; Weather Conditions: Partly Cloudy, 77 degrees, Wind S 17 mph
= Records: Adrian Bulldogs, 31-10 overall (24-4 MIAA); Calvin Knights, 16-24 overall (14-14 MIAA)
= National Rankings: Adrian is No. 29 by American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball Newspaper, 60 points; Adrian is "receiving votes" from D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, 63 points
TOP 'DAWGS
= Wood finished with a single and a double.
= Parsons threw his ninth complete game of the spring, scattering nine hits and allowing just two first-inning runs. He struck out eight Knights and did not issue a walk.
= Senior Hunter Hayes registered a game-high three hits on a pair of doubles and a single.
= Classmate Frank Resto and juniors Zack Zschering, Dugan Darnell contributed two hits apiece.
THE OPPOSITION
= Ryan Pena was 2-for-4 with two RBI.
= Ricky Padilla and Quinn Hyndiuk added two hits apiece.
HOW IT HAPPENED
= Adrian erased a 2-0 deficit in its home half of the opening frame with three runs. The Bulldogs' first three batters reached as Zschering got on via a fielding error, sophomore Gunner Rainey was hit by a pitch and Wood singled up the middle to plate Zschering for an unearned tally. Two batters later, Darnell laced an RBI-double just inside the third base bag to tie it and classmate Jason Croci hit a RBI-ground out to score Wood for the go-ahead run, 3-2.
= Calvin jumped ahead 2-0 in the top of the first and threatened to score more but the Adrian defense came up with a big 5-3-6 double play to escape further damage. Padilla hit a one-out single through the left side and moved to third base after a double off the bat of Jonathan Keane. Pena followed with a double off the shortstop's glove to bring home Padilla and Keane. But Parsons got Hyndiuk to ground out to third and Hayes was alert to throw out Pena trying to advance to third base with junior shortstop Jordan Torrento applying the tag.
= In the fifth, the Bulldogs got two insurance runs to make it 5-2. Wood had a RBI-groundout and Darnell singled to center for another RBI.
= Adrian padded the advantage with three runs in the sixth on a two-run double by Wood and run-scoring double from Hayes.
= Calvin loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth but could not score.
= After Knights scored two runs on three hits in the first, Parsons retired nine straight and 13 of 14 batters he faced until the Knights staged another threat in the sixth, when they loaded the bases. But Parsons finished strong by not allowing a runner past first base the rest of the way.
BEYOND THE BOX SCORE
= Adrian is ranked fourth in the second of three NCAA Division III Mideast Regional Rankings. The third public weekly rankings will be announced on Thursday.
= The Bulldogs snapped a season-long four-game losing streak this afternoon.
= Parsons has 102 strikeouts this season, besting his school record of 101 set in 2017. He is the only Bulldog on record to notch multiple 100-strikeout years. The three-time MIAA Pitcher of the Year also surpasses Ryan Domschot (277 from 2008-11) for second place on the program's all-time strikeouts list with 281.
= The Bulldogs are now 16-4 in MIAA tournament play since the event started in 2012.
= Wood ranks second in the MIAA with a .419 batting average while Padilla is fifth at .377.
= Parsons and Keane (L, 4-3) rank 1-2 in MIAA strikeouts, 102 and 66. The former also leads the conference with a 1.50 ERA and 10 victories (10-0).
= Hayes upped his MIAA RBI total to 53.
UP NEXT
= Adrian will host Alma College, a 10-8 winner today over Hope College in Alma during Game 2, in a MIAA Tournament Game 3 of the winners' bracket on Thursday. First-pitch at Nicolay Field is scheduled for 11 a.m.
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