The Spring Arbor baseball team split the away series against the Grace College Lancers on April 4. They won the first game, 4-1 extending their win streak to 8. The Lancers took game two defeating the Cougars 4-3.

Dane Staples took the mound for SAU in the first game. He gave up one run and two hits in his complete game win. His bid for a shutout ended with two outs in the bottom of the seventh when the Lancers’ Joey Hickerson homered.

The Cougars offense flourished after they had one at-bat against Lancers’ pitcher Clifford Buttermore. Maverick Nichols scored on a Brian Doll double in the top of the fourth inning. Doll scored on a suicide squeeze by JP Maracani putting the Cougars up 2-0.

They scored again in the fifth after Steven Kolb reached on a misplayed grounder. He then stole second and third before scoring on a Nichols sacrifice bunt. Mark Weist scored the Cougars last run of the game in the top of the seventh on a wild throw after hitting a double to deep right-center field.

Spring Arbor carried their momentum into the second game, scoring first when Billy Hochradel singled in the second inning. Maracani and Jonathan Newman both came in to score. Grace scored next on a double by Jacob Bloom.

After tripling to start the fourth inning, Maracani came around to score on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Walker. The Lancers went on to score three runs in the bottom of the same inning and the Cougars offense was unable to recover.

Hochradel pitched the first three innings, giving up one run on two hits, before handing the ball over to Nick Lockman. Lockman had three runs on two hits in two innings pitched. Heath Sullivan and Eddie Rakotz combined to pitch the sixth inning.

The Cougars are returning to Spring Arbor on Saturday, April 6 to face off against Indiana Wesleyan. Game one begins at 1 p.m.

[WRITER’S NOTE: ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON WWW.SAUCOUGARS.COM]