Kalamazoo, Mich.–The Battle Creek Bombers swept the home-and-home series with rival Kalamazoo, this time at Homer Stryker Field. The Bombers scored five runs and received excellent pitching for the second straight night.
Meanwhile, errors hurt the Growlers (0-4) in the top of the first as Dan Swain (Siena), hit a single and was able to advance into scoring position after a bad throw by Growlers’ third basemen Marquise Gill. After stealing third, Swain was able to score off a sacrifice fly by Lin Li (National Taiwan).
Kalamazoo did not score until the bottom of the sixth as Gill scored off a fielder's choice by Justin Fletcher (Northern Illinois) to make the score 3-1 in favor of Battle Creek.
With two outs in the top of the seventh the Growlers committed another error when first baseman Bryce Adams (LSU) could not catch a throw from third which set up runners on first and third. The Bombers, now 2-2, stringed together several hits after the error to plate two and make the score 5-1 going into the bottom of the seventh.
The Growlers would not go down without a fight, however. In the bottom of the eighth, Gill led off with a single. After a popout, Justin Fletcher hit a single into right field, which put runners on first and third. Charles Leblanc (Pittsburgh) then grounded out to second to score Gill and make the score 5-2. Then Fletcher came home on a wild pitch to score the final run for the Growlers.
Derek Schneider (Western Michigan) picked up the loss for the Growlers, tossing 6.2 innings and giving up five runs (one earned) on eight hits.
Nick Wernke (West Virginia) and Justin Schander (Phoenix College) combined for the final 2.1 innings and didn’t allow any more Bomber runs.
Michael Peterson (River City College) started for Bombers, and he went three innings while striking out three. Kaleb McCurry (Mars Hill College) picked up the win for the Bombers after two scoreless innings while striking out three as well.
Nathan Witt (Michigan State) and Karmen Joostberns (Aquinas) combined for the final four innings and Witt was charged with two earned runs.
The Bombers will now head to the state of Wisconsin to face the Kenoha Kingfish Saturday at 7:05 p.m. The Kingfish are 3-1.
