PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – A ninth-inning rally fell short for the Heidelberg University baseball team on Wednesday as they dropped a 7-5 contest to Keystone College. The Student Princes battled back after falling into an early four-run hole, but their comeback attempt was not enough as they fell to 3-8 on the season.
Keystone did not hit a ball hard in the first inning, but they managed to score four runs on six hits. A pair of ground balls through the right side on hit-and-runs, a ball lost in the sun in the outfield, and a soft grounder through the left side did the damage before Heidelberg starter Alex Simun worked out of the jam.
The Student Princes quickly answered, however, as a two-out, two-run double off the wall in right field byParker Fronk cut the deficit in half.
Both teams went scoreless in the second before Simun found himself in a tough spot in the third. Once again he was able to work out of trouble, keeping the Giants from scoring after allowing the bases loaded with one out. Simun worked for a strikeout and a groundout back to himself to keep the score at 4-2.
That score held until the top of the fourth when Keystone scored one unearned run, while Simun continued to pitch to soft contact.
The Giants tacked on one more in the top of the sixth on a wild pitch, but in the bottom of the inning a two-out RBI single byClayton Wielinski cut the Keystone lead back down to three.
After Keystone built their lead back up to four in the seventh, Heidelberg's bats went silent until the ninth, when they started to put together a rally. A leadoff double by Joey Wenning got things started before later in the inning when Derek Hug drove him in with an RBI groundout. With two outs, Adam Hershberger drove in the inning's second run to cut the deficit to two. Fronk followed Hershberger with another single, but the Keystone closer was able to get a strikeout to end the game.
Hershberger and Wielinski both had a trio of hits in the loss for the Berg.
Simun (0-1) took the loss after going six innings with a career-high six strikeouts. Cory Jacobs threw two innings of scoreless relief, striking out a pair.
UP NEXT
Heidelberg will have Thursday off in Florida before returning to the diamond on Friday for a doubleheader with Salem State. Game one is scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. in Port Charlotte.