Published: May 16, 2008 12:11 am            

Bats go silent for Engineers in NCAA loss

Seven plate appearances into Thursday’s NCAA Division III baseball regional between Adrian and Rose-Hulman, the Engineers had three base hits.

It would be all Rose-Hulman would get.

For seven innings, those hits were enough, but the lack of offense meant the Engineers were living on borrowed time. Adrian scored two runs in the top of eighth and made them stick for a 4-3 victory late Thursday night.

“We’re not a hitting team. We never have been, we don’t profess to be one,” Rose-Hulman coach Jeff Jenkins said. “It’s about pitching and defense. We pitched, but we didn’t play defense and when you don’t do two out of three, there’s a good chance you’re going to get beat.”

Rose-Hulman will play Wooster at 3:30 p.m. today in an elimination game. If the Engineers win, they will play again at 7 p.m. against the loser of the noon game between unbeaten Heidelberg and Adrian.

Adrian pitcher Bobby Rickstad proved too tough to master for the Engineers, not allowing a hit after the second inning on his way to a 10-strikeout performance. Rose-Hulman starter Michael Matsui was also effective, allowing two earned runs in eight innings of work with six strikeouts.

Jenkins thought the Engineers could have done a better job working the count against Rickstad.

“What really was disappointing is that [Rickstad] was a lot tougher than our kids. We gave away too many at-bats. We’d get a three-ball count and start swinging. We gave in, we gave up, we weren’t tough enough to gut it out, take ball four, take a walk and get something going that way,” Jenkins said. The Engineers had just two walks after the third inning.

After a 92-minute rain delay pushed the game start to 8:30 p.m., Adrian got itself going straight away. Four Bulldog singles fueled a two-run first inning with RBIs by Steve Vanderhyden and Brian Bilius.

Rose-Hulman wasted little time evening the score. Andrew Bilse reached on an error when third baseman Bilius tried to barehand a bunt and Adrian would pay the price two batters later. Keenan Long sliced an opposite-field line-drive home run to right to make it 2-2.

“It was two strikes and I just wanted to stay back and put the ball in play. He threw a high fastball, I just threw my hands at it and it happened to get a good part of the bat,” Long said.

Another fielding miscue contributed to Rose-Hulman’s go-ahead run in the second. Gabe Focke led off with a double and Troy Eveslage bunted down the first-base line to try and move Focke up. Rickstad had trouble with the well-placed bunt and threw wide of first base. Focke scored and the Engineers led 3-2.

From there, the game morphed into a pitcher’s duel. At one point, Matsui and Rickstad struck out seven consecutive batters between them. Matsui retired nine straight Bulldogs from the third to the sixth inning. He got out of a jam in the sixth after consecutive one-out Adrian singles, saved when a well-struck Jake Cappelletty drive to right field died in the heavy night air and was caught on the warning track.

The Engineers weren’t as fortunate in the eighth. Adrian’s Alex Cowart hit a routine grounder to short that was bobbled by Chandler Kent, starting a nightmarish inning in the field for Rose-Hulman. Two Adrian singles followed, with a Vanderhyden single up the middle tying the game.

Fielding woes continued when Adrian loaded the bases when Matsui threw wide on a bunt attempt trying to get the lead runner at third. Adrian took the lead on a Cappelletty sacrifice fly and only a Rose-Hulman double play saved the Engineers from further Bulldog damage after one more Rose-Hulman error and another dropped fly ball that could have been.

“It was an anomaly. It’s nothing for us to be worried about,” said Long on the defensive problems.

In other tournament action, Transylvania and Calvin were eliminated from the tournament. Heidelberg beat Calvin 4-1 to remain unbeaten. Wooster defeated Transylvania 6-3 to stave off elimination.

Rose-Hulman lost its first game in the HCAC Tournament last week to Franklin and won three games before being eliminated in the championship game. Long figures that experience will help the Engineers against Wooster today.

“We were in this position last weekend and we fought and got all the way to the championship game. There’s no shortage of heart on this team,” Long said.

Jenkins said Luis Bougrat will get the start against Wooster.

        

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