Box Score Wabash picked up a pair of runs in the third and two more in the fifth to earn a 4-1 victory over Rose-Hulman Wednesday evening. The victory snapped a five-game winning streak versus the Little Giants by Rose.
The Fightin' Engineers scored first with a run in the second but were silenced the rest of the afternoon by the Wabash pitching staff.
Josh Piercey earned his third win of the season, throwing three innings while scattering five hits and a walk with one earned run.
Christian Vukas walked two and struck out one while allowing one hit in his two innings of work.
Austin Hawn also walked two and gave up one hit in two innings of relief.
Nelson Novack picked up his third save of the season, working two scoreless innings of two-hit, one-strikeout baseball. Novack threw 28 pitches with 24 crossing the plate for strikes. Rose-Hulman (7-12) managed nine hits over the nine innings.
The Little Giants pushed two runs home in the third when
Lucas Stippler opened the inning with a base hit to short. After stealing second, Stippler moved to third on a ground ball by
Trey Fankhauser that was bobbled by the Rose-Hulman shortstop.
Robby Hechinger singled to score Stippler, then back-to-back walks brought Fankauser home with the go-ahead run.
Chad Gindelberger started the two-run fifth with a walk, then moved to second when Hechinger was hit by a pitch. A wild pitch moved both runners up a base, setting up an RBI double by
Andrew Rodgers that scored Gindelberger prior to Hechinger being thrown out at the plate.
Tyler Owensby produced the final run of the game with a single to score Rodgers.
Stippler finished with three of the Little Giants' 11 hits. Rodgers added two hits for Wabash.
The win was the first for the Little Giants over Rose since an 11-8 final in Terre Haute in 2003. The last home win by Wabash over the Engineers was an 11-1 win in 2000. The victory also ended a 12-game home stand for the Little Giants, who posted a record of 6-6 during that stretch.
Wabash (8-10) travels to Wooster, Ohio on Saturday for a pair of non-conference games against the College of Wooster Fighting Scots beginning at 1 p.m.
