Alex Allen, Staff Writer~
On Saturday, April 29, Lynchburg College’s Men’s Baseball team not only split a doubleheader with the Royals of Eastern Mennonite University but also honored their six seniors.
These six seniors consisted of catchers Ryan Hardy and Will Hylton, shortstop Ryan Katona and pitchers Chris Morelli, Logan Woodall and Zach Englemann.
Before the start of the first game, the LC players and coaches lined up and greeted each senior as they walked by with their families. The coaches honored the seniors by giving them each a framed jersey of their own, while the crowd was read off a list of accomplishments made by each senior.
Following the celebration of the LC seniors, game one of the day’s doubleheader began. LC won the first game 7-3 and added to their list of home runs when junior first-baseman Luke Rodgers hit one over the fence. On the opposite side of the bat, Englemann pitched for all nine innings of the first game, allowing only six hits for EMU and striking out four of their players.
During this game, first-year outfielder Christopher Crouch came up to bat a total of four times. During these four times, Crouch not only got two hits but also scored one run and brought in three RBIs (runs batted in).
Along with Crouch, Hylton, Rodgers and Hardy also contributed to the win with RBIs of their own. Junior outfielder Dallas Johnson went 2-2 during his at bats and gained two runs for the Hornets in their victory.
The second game of the day went to EMU as LC fell to the Royals 6-3. During this game, the Hornets utilized four pitchers.
To start LC off was Woodall, who had a total of 57 pitches with 34 strikes while facing 18 batters. Next was sophomore Graham Boogio, who faced 17 batters and threw 32 strikes out of 53 pitches.
Following Woodall and Boogio came junior Jacob Flora who threw 19 pitches and seven strikes against six batters. Lastly, to close out the game, was first-year Nick Norman who faced five batters, throwing 13 strikes out of 19 pitches.
The Hornets gained their three runs this game from RBIs by first-year centerfielder Shawn Allen, with two, and Katona, with one. Hylton, Katona and sophomore third baseman Griffin Wild recorded the three runs for the Hornets.
This was the last game for the LC Men’s Baseball team for their 2016-17 season. They ended their season 7-13 in conference and 17-21 overall. They were 13-10 at home, 3-11 away and 1-0 at neutral sites. The Hornets recorded a total of 218 runs this season with 12 of those being home runs.
They will now graduate six seniors and begin their off-season as both sports and school come to an end.