The Hope College baseball team successfully grabbed wins in two of three games in the MIAA-opening series with Alma College.
The Flying Dutchmen won the doubleheader portion on Monday after being rescheduled due to inclement weather. Hope topped Alma 4-2 in game one and 7-3 in game two.
Hope moved to 9-10 on the season, and 2-1 in MIAA play.
Hope began game one with the home team scoring three quick runs in the bottom of the second as sophomore Al Money (Midland, Michigan / Midland HS) and Nolan Gardner each grabbed big hits.
Gardner, a Grand Rapids, Michigan (East Grand Rapids) native, earned a single to left field to send in junior Robbie Stuursma (Grand Rapids, Michigan / East Grand Rapids), and quickly thereafter Money smacked a double to the outfield, scoring two runs to put Hope up 3-0.
The Scots tried to fight back with runs scored in the fourth and the fifth innings, but the Flying Dutchmen defense along with senior pitcher Shane Hykin kept Alma at bay, with Hykin (Ada, Michigan / Forest Hills Northern) collecting seven strikeouts in five innings on the mound to earn the win, improving to 3-0 this season.
Four different Flying Dutchmen racked up two hits apiece to lead Hope in game one: Spencer Cable, Stuursma, Gardner and Money.
Game two went scoreless until the bottom of the third when Hope broke through the tie with a sacrifice fly from Money, bringing in the first run of the game.
Hope built on its lead in the bottom of both the sixth and seventh as Stuursma and Cable (Hudsonville, Michigan / Hudsonville) each picked up hits, increasing the Flying Dutchmen's lead to 4-0.
Alma scored its first runs of the game, climbing back to make it a one-run contest, in the top of the eighth inning.
Senior pitcher Jake Van Dam (Cranford, New Jersey / Cranford) and the Flying Dutchmen escaped the threat in the top of the inning and added on three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth in response.
Junior Andrew Pickett (Carmel, Indiana / Brebeuf Jesuit Prep) sent a sacrifice fly to right field to send in Hope's fifth run as Stuursma crossed home plate.
The Flying Dutchmen tacked on the final two runs of the game, to make it 7-3, with Gardner flying home on a wild pitch, and senior Kainan Bayn (Zeeland, Michigan / Zeeland East) hitting in Money on his second single of the day.
Three Flying Dutchmen had a team-high two hits: Bayn, Stuursma and Cable.
Junior Graham O'Gorman (Champaign, Illinois / Champaign Central) slung his way through seven innings on the mound allowing just two hits and firing off three strikeouts for his third win of the season.
Hope travels to Kalamazoo College on Tuesday, April 4, at 4 p.m. for game one of the MIAA series.
