MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The Hilbert Baseball team split their series today against Penn College on day one at the Ripken Experience Tournament hosted in South Carolina.
Angelo DiNizo's walk-off double in the bottom of the 7th gave Hilbert a 5-4 nightcap win after they dropped a 4-2 opening loss in the 9 am game.
Brendan Walsh made two solid appearances and picked up the nightcap win on the mound
Final Scores:
Game 1: Penn College 4 – Hilbert College 2
Game 2: Hilbert College 5 – Penn College 4
Game One:
- Patrick Whelan scored off Derek Martinez' at bat in the bottom of the first inning but the Wildcats responded with three runs in the bottom of the second.
- Andrew Cole shut Penn down the next three innings, striking two of the ten batters faced.
- Whelan's double with an extra bag scored Jairo Santos on the throw home which inched Hilbert to a 3-2 score in the 5th.
- The Wildcats tacked another run in the bottom of the 6th before Brendan Walsh closed the inning against one batter and sent Hilbert back to the dugout.
- The Wildcats made a change on the mound after two outs in the top of the 7th and earned their first win of the season.
- Five different Hawks collected hits, with Jairo Santos and Patrick Whelan (1RBI) scoring the two Hilbert runs.John Riviere-Vejas sprinted to another stolen base in the top of the 7th.
- Andrew Cole (1-1) went 5.2 innings, struck out two, with one walk and four hits and four runs.Brendan Walsh closed the 6th with a four-pitch strike out.
Game two:
- After three scoreless innings, the Wildcats struck first. Penn earned a base on balls and added another along the bags after a Hilbert-fielding error. Contini, with two outs, gave up a single to the outfield which scored both runs.Catcher John Walton ended the inning with his throw-out to the Wildcat attempting to steal second.
- Penn manufactured two more runs after Contini struck the first two batters out at the top of the 5th.Three consecutive hits led to the 4-0 score by the bottom of the 5th.
- Contini worked his way out a bases-loaded 6th inning with a third-out infield pop-up and gave the Hawks momentum as they headed the bottom half of the inning.
- Hilbert, with bases loaded, forced a second pitch change of the inning after Emmanuel McClain's hit scored the first of four Hilbert runs.Two more walks and a wild pitch evened the score at 4-4.
- Brendan Walsh took the mound in the 7th and shut the Wildcats down with three straight outs that led Hilbert's continued rally.
- Penn made another pitch change, Martinez hit a single, Frank McCabe entered as his pinch runner and immediately stole second base. Angelo DiNizo earned his first walk-off double this season to plate the winning run.
- Martinez led with two hits, and DiNizo was the only multi-bag hitter.
- Walsh earned his first win of the season after appearing in all four games.Contini went six innings striking out five with two earned runs.
Up Next:
Hilbert, 2-4, heads to Ebberts Field tomorrow for a 12:30 pm single game against Delaware Valley University.