KEUKA PARK, NY—The Houghton College Highlanders (12-15) and the Keuka College Wolves (9-9) played to a doubleheader split on Saturday.
The Wolves took the first game, 9-6, scoring two runs in the fifth to knot the score at five, then five more runs in the sixth to pull ahead.
Houghton responded in the nightcap, pounding out 13 hits and 13 runs to win the five-inning, rain-shortened contest, 13-2.
Game One:
Tage Johnson put Houghton on the scoreboard first, leading off the second inning with a long blast to left-centerfield for his third homerun of the season.
The Highlanders added another run in the third when
Taylor Huntsman singled home
Jacob Hayes.
Keuka tied the score in the bottom half of the inning, but Houghton promptly pulled ahead again, plating two more runs in the top of the fourth on back-to-back singles by Hayes and
Nicholas Melchiore.
In the bottom of the fifth the Wolves strung together three straight hits with a wild pitch in between that allowed two runs to score.
The hit attack continued for the Wolves in the sixth as they opened the inning with four straight hits then played some small ball to produce five total runs.
Houghton continued to battle in the seventh as
Bryan Hodge knocked in Johnson, but with two outs and runners on the corners the game would come to an end with a popup to the catcher.
Hayes finished 3-for-3 with a walk, an RBI and two runs scored. Johnson added two hits, two RBI and two runs scored.
Game Two:
After the first two Highlanders went down in the top of the first, Houghton's bats started to heat up. Huntsman singled to left, Johnson was hit by a pitch before
Ethan Duryea and Hodge hit back-to-back doubles to push three runs across.
Houghton then opened the game up in the top of the fourth, scoring four more runs on six hits.
Keuka got two back in the bottom half of the inning, but that was all they would get off Houghton starter Ned Monthie, who allowed five hits and only two runs while striking out five on the day.
The Highlanders would tack on six more runs in the fifth before Monthie worked out of a bases-loaded jam and the game was called due to the rain and field conditions.
Every Highlander starter had at least one hit, while Hayes, Melchiore, Huntsman and Duryea all posted two hits apiece.
The Houghton offense has now knocked out 89 hits in their past six games (just shy of 15 hits per game) and had no fewer than 12 hits in any of them.
Next Time Out:
After a seven-game road swing that lasted a week, the Highlanders finally return home on Wednesday, April 19 for a doubleheader with the Ithaca Bombers. The Bombers won the first game of the series, in Ithaca, 12-6.
