CHILLICOTHE, Ohio. – The top-seeded IU Southeast baseball team started the RSC Baseball Championship with a 5-3 victory over sixth-seeded Rio Grande on Thursday.
Rio Grande jumped out to an early lead against the Grenadiers. Three straight singles gave Rio Grande a 1-0 lead, and the lead jumped to 2-0 on an RBI groundout. The Redstorm scored two runs on four hits in the top of the first.
Clay Woeste led off with a double in the bottom of the first for IU Southeast. Woeste advanced to third on a flyout. Marco Romero walked with two outs to put runners on first and third. Derek Wagner walked to load the bases, and Brandon Boxer put the Grenadiers on the board with an RBI hit by pitch.
Trevor MacDonald led off the bottom of the second with a double to give the Grenadiers a runner in scoring position with no outs. Rio Grande was able to get an out on a fielder's choice to eliminate the runner in scoring position. After Daunte DeCello reached on the fielder's choice, Clay Woeste delivered with an RBI double to tie the game at 2-2.
The Redstorm threatened in the top of the third, putting runners on second and third with one out. Rio Grande was able to take a 3-2 lead on an RBI groundout but could not score the second runner as IU Southeast induced another groundout to get out of the jam.
For the third straight inning, the renadiers led off their half of the inning with a double. Marco Romero raced to third on a Brandon Boxer single and scored on a sacrifice fly by John Ullom to tie the game at 3-3. Brandon Boxer stole second, but Rio Grande was able to get out of the inning without another run scoring.
Daunte DeCello walked and stole second to start the bottom of the fourth inning for IU Southeast. Clay Woeste followed with another base on balls to put runners on first and second with no outs. DeCello advanced to third on a flyout, and both DeCello and Woeste scored on a two-RBI double by Brody Tanksley to make it 5-3 IU Southeast.
After the fourth inning, only one player reached scoring position. Rio Grande put on a runner on second with no outs in the top of the eighth inning, but the Grenadiers escaped without allowing a run.
U Southeast won the opener of the RSC Baseball Championship 5-3. Hunter Kloke got the win in the contest, moving his record to 10-3 on the season. Kloke threw seven innings of nine-hit, three-run baseball. Jacob Morley and Gavin Knust combined to throw two innings of one-hit baseball to secure the victory for the Grenadiers.
Clay Woeste led the Grenadiers with three hits. Brody Tanksley added to his IU Southeast RBI record with two more runs driven in.
The top-ranked Grenadiers will play on Friday against the loser of IU Kokomo and Midway.
