By Evan Ream
The Grand Rapids Community College baseball team picked up their 12th win of the season on Tuesday night after defeating the Aquinas College Saints JV team with a rather convincing 9-2 win at Belknap Park in Grand Rapids.
The action kicked off in the first inning as Aquinas’s Brent Ringler Jr. drew first blood, landing a single on a ground ball to left field, allowing Max Vicari to score.
GRCC then answered quickly in the bottom of the first inning after Jared Bujdos grounded out, allowing Dylan McMaster to score, tying the game 1-1.
The action died down until the bottom of the third when Bujdos again grounded out, creating time for Jake Ryan to make his way home, putting the Raiders up 2-1.
The Raiders didn’t stop there. McMaster was up to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning, hitting a double on a fly ball to center field, sending both Sam Briggs and Andrew Larsen home. This widened the Raiders’ lead, making it 4-1.
The Saints answered with a run in the fifth, but the Raiders answered right back in the bottom of the fifth, starting with an RBI single from Tyler Visser scoring Carter Chylek. Then, things got much worse for the Saints as they allowed Bujdos, Visser and Grant Erbes to score off of a double, hit by Michael Gumbko, widening the lead 8-2.
Gumbko didn’t stop there as he stole home base in the bottom of the seventh inning, which would be the last runs scored in the game, giving the Raiders a 9-2 win.
After the game, head coach Mike Eddington talked about the team’s big win.
“We played solid,” Eddington said. “Our whole goal is to get better every day. We just want to play and get better.”
Not every face was familiar on Tuesday night as Eddington gave a few younger guys a chance to show their talents.
“We played quite a few guys who haven’t had a chance to play,” Eddington said. “But they’ve done a solid job when they’ve been given a chance to.”
The Raiders have an 8-4 conference schedule and improve their overall record to 12-16. They’ll be back home on Saturday, April 13 when they host the Muskegon Community College Jayhawks for a double-header starting at 2 p.m. at Belknap Park in Grand Rapids.
