Rio Grande Sports Information
COLUMBUS, Ind. - The University of Rio Grande baseball team entered the final weekend of regular season play holding out hope that its late-season surge would continue and that the string of success would produce a continued chance for redemption in the post-season.
Unfortunately, in somewhat stunning fashion, neither materialized in Thursday afternoon's River States Conference twin bill against the team sitting just above the bottom of the league standings.
Indiana University Columbus, which had just 10 wins for the season entering the weekend, set a new season-high for runs in a 15-9 game one victory and then rubbed salt in the wound - while officially ended the RedStorm's post-season hopes - with a 6-5 walk-off triumph in the nightcap at Cera Sports Park.
The host Crimson Pride, who won consecutive games for just the fourth time this season and who swept a doubleheader for only the second time all year, improved to 12-36 overall and 6-20 in the RSC.
Rio Grande, which had won 11 of its previous 13 contests, dropped to 27-20 overall and 11-15 in league play.
The RedStorm could still catch Indiana University Kokomo - which currently sits in the sixth place in the league standings - with a win in Friday's series finale and a weekend sweep of the Cougars by league leader Indiana University Southeast - but IUK holds the tiebreaker over head coach Brad Warnimont's club by virtue of winning two of the three games when the two schools met last month.
The top six teams qualify for tournament play, which begins next week in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Rio Grande coughed up a 7-3 fourth inning lead in Thursday's opening game, surrendering a five-run IUC uprising in the bottom of the fourth.
The RedStorm scored twice in the sixth inning to regain a 9-8 advantage before allowing another five-run inning to the Crimson Pride in the seventh.
IUC tacked on two more insurance markers in the eighth, to eclipse their season-high for runs in a game of 14, which had occurred twice this year.
Cyrus Robinson went 4-for-5 and scored four runs in the win, while Carson McNulty was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBI and Gavin Lash was 2-for-4 with three RBI.
Wyatt Sutton contributed two hits and as many RBI for the Crimson Pride, while Quentcy Perry doubled twice, Trey VanMeter was 2-for-4 with a double, Garrett Thurman drove in three runs and Aidan Sheetz had two RBI.
Brendan Bailey tossed 1-1/3 innings of scoreless relief for the win, while Gavin Haltom allowed one hit over two shutout frames for his seventh save.
Redshirt freshman Henry Valerio (Hilliard, OH) suffered the loss for the RedStorm, allowing three hits, two walks and five runs over three innings.
Redshirt junior Brett Haskins (Ripley, WV) went 4-for-5 with two doubles, a triple, three runs scored and one run batted in for Rio, while junior Caleb Asjes (Overland Park, KS) had two hits and two RBI and senior Josiah Devapalan (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) was 2-for-3 with a double and a run batted in.
IUC jumped to a 3-0 first inning lead in the nightcap and maintained the cushion until tied the game at 5-all with two runs in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly by senior Keniel Rosado (Juncos, P.R.) and an RBI double by sophomore Gehrig Cordial (South Charleston, OH).
The Crimson Pride rallied in the bottom of the frame to the stick the dagger in the RedStorm's heart when Robinson reached on a one-out walk, Thurman had an infield single and Lash followed with a single to center to plate Robinson with the winning run.
Junior Joel Pagan (Humacao, P.R.), Devapalan and Cordial all had two hits each in the loss for the RedStorm, while Haskins and Rosado drove in two runs each. Both of Cordial's hits were doubles.
Junior Dalton Vance (Taylor, MI), the last of four Rio pitchers, took the loss after allowing four hits and two runs over 1-1/3 innings.
Haltom got his first win in seven decisions for IUC, despite allowing the two seventh inning runs.
VanMeter was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two RBI for the Crimson Pride, while Sheetz and Lash added two hits apiece.
Friday's season finale is set for a noon first pitch.
