Rose baseball stays alive in HCAC tournament

May 10—Rose-Hulman's baseball team kept its season alive with an 11-10 walk-off victory over Mount St. Joseph in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference double-elimination tournament Friday afternoon at Kokomo Municipal Stadium.

Mount St. Joseph got the scoring going in the third inning with an RBI double, but Rose-Hulman came right back with three runs on an RBI single by Colter Couillard-Rodak and a two-run single by Colton Brown.

The Lions retook the lead by scoring six of the next seven runs with the only Rose offense coming from a sacrifice fly by Connor O'Connell. However, the Engineers came right back and wiped away the 7-4 deficit with an RBI double by Mark Serdinak and a two-run double by Mason Rasmussen to tie the game at seven.

After two more runs for MSJ in the seventh, the Rose-Hulman offense came right back with three more of its own on an RBI double by Dalton Busboom and another two-run double by Serdinak to take the 10-9 lead.

The Lions were down to their final out in the ninth but responded with two singles and a walk to tie the game and load the bases, but Jonathan Oliger responded with a strikeout to end the threat.

In the ninth, Oliger and Rasmussen ripped singles to put runners on the corners with one out, and after an intentional walk for Kade Kline, Peter Rogers walked it off with a sacrifice fly to left field to win the game 11-10.

Brady Strawmyer pitched 5.1 innings with 8 strikeouts and gave up 5 earned runs in his postseason debut. Zacheus Carr and Oliger finished the final 3.2 innings with just three runs allowed and Oliger picked up the win after the blown save.

At the plate, Couillard-Rodak and O'Connell led the team with three hits and Brown, Serdinak and Rasmussen added multiple hits and multiple RBIs in the win.

Rose-Hulman (25-18) will play Anderson at noon Saturday in its first of two possible must-win games of the day. If the Engineers win that game, they will play again at 3:30 p.m. against the loser of Hanover vs. Transylvania.

Earlier Friday, Rose lost to Transylvania 7-2.