Baseball Takes St. Francis in Extra Innings  (4/16/05)
The baseball team may have fallen below the .500 record this week, but they are making gains in the conference as they split with the University of St. Francis. After losing the first seven inning game of the double header, 6-2, the Trolls come back in the second game. The final outcome of that game was not decided until the 11th inning when the Trolls came up with the 10-9 victory. Previous to this win the Trolls had lost the last 13 contests against St. Francis. Ironically the last time they defeated them in a split double header on this exact date, April 16, in the 1998 season. The team is now 12-15 for the season and 4-7 in the CCAC. 

The Trolls were the first on the scoreboard in game one with a 1-0 lead after 3 innings. However the hitting of St. Francis (11 total hits for the game) eventually caught up with them. Still ahead 2-1 after 4 innings, the Trolls slipped in the 5th inning, giving up four runs. A final run for St. Francis came in the 6th inning to end the game at 6-2. 

In the second game each team had 12 hits and created many scoring opportunities. The first score came in the second inning as the Trolls put three runs on the board and St. Francis answered with two. St. Francis then took a brief lead after the 4th inning, 4-3, but the Trolls picked up one more in the 5th to tie the game. St. Francis widened the gap in the 6th inning as they put together four hits for 3 runs to make the score 7-4. In the 7th inning the Trolls put runners on base with hits from Joel DeRuiter and Nick Richards. The next two batters, Adam McIntyre and Kale Hoyt, each walked to bring in one run. Rob Emmons connected for a double that drove in two more runs and Tim Lanenga followed with a sacrifice hit for the fourth run of the inning.  St. Francis kept the game alive in the bottom of the inning as they scored on misconnection between the pitcher and the catcher.

The game pushed on for 4 more innings before either team crossed the plate again. In the 11th inning DeRuiter singled once again to get on base. Two outs later McIntyre homered to left field to give the Trolls the 10-8 advantage. St. Francis got one of those runs back in the bottom of the inning, but the Trolls retired the last batter before another run could score. 

Randy Ditzler is credited with the win with the 5.1 innings pitched. Hoyt ended the game with three hits while DeRuiter, Richards, McIntyre, and Emmons each had two. 

The team will play next on April 19 at home against Saint Xavier University at 3:30 pm. 
 

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