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Box Score 2 BUTLER, Pa. -- The game started with a clutch hit by each team in the early innings. Then neither team got one until extra innings. The result was a 4-2 victory for University of Rio Grande (Ohio) over Point Park University in a River States Conference baseball game from Pullman Park on Saturday.
Rio Grande (22-28, 9-10 RSC) took the series opener with three runs in the top of the 10th inning. That came on a clutch, bases-clearing double by Darius Jordan with two outs. Point Park dropped to 29-10 overall, 15-4 RSC.
The game had gone into extra innings tied at 1-1. The Rio Grande 10th started with No. 9 hitter Brady Conley reaching on a bunt single. Jacob Johnson delivered a single two batters later. Conley later stole third to create a first-and-third situation with two outs.
Courtesy runner Mitch Santino took advantage of defensive indifference to move up to second on the next pitch. Point Park opted to intentionally walk Gavin Lovesky to load the bases with two outs. Jordan came next with his big double, a line shot down the left-field line to bring in three.
In the bottom of the 10th, Point Park got a leadoff walk, but it was erased on a 5-4-3 double, the RedStorm's second double play of the game. But the next four batters all walked to make the score 4-2.
Trey White came in for the final out and got Ed Pfluger to fly out to deep center field to end the game. The final drive came close to the 425 dimension in center field, but Jordan hauled it in.
The Rio Grande pitching staff dealt 12 walks, and Point Park had eight hits to Rio Grande's six. All of that led to plenty of base runners for the Pioneers. But they left 17 on base, which included leaving two runners on in six different innings and the bases loaded in the ninth.
Trey Carter pitched the first 8.0 innings for Rio Grande giving up five walks and all eight hits. The only damage done versus him was Carlos Sanchez's two-out single in the second inning, which tied the score at 1-1.
Point Park starter Easton Klein pitched 7.0 innings. He gave up only two hits, both of which came in the top of the first. A leadoff single by Clay Surrell and a two-out gapper to left by Gavin Lovesky was Rio Grande's only run until the 10th.
Then Klein put up six straight zeroes and held Rio Grande hitless for six innings in a row. Point Park, meanwhile, could not come up with a clutch hit during that time.
A near miss for the Pioneers was Gianmarco Marcelleti's double off the 385 sign in left-center, which came in the bottom of the seventh. It was just a few feet away from a homer for a 2-1 lead.
Rio Grande picked its spots and walked Pfluger three times intentionally. The plan worked with Carter getting out of trouble multiple times. Winning pitcher Lane Mettler did the same in the ninth. He pitched 1.2 innings of relief and did not give up a hit in his outing although he piled seven walks on top of Carter's five before that.
Leo Diaz pitched the final 3.0 innings for Point Park. He picked up five strikeouts. Three of the four hits he allowed came in the 10th, one of which was a bunt.
