Beetles baseball: Alexandria wins three of five over the weekend

• Miller

Echo Press photo by Eric Morken Will Miller (13) slid into base during recent Beetles baseball action against Brainerd. Alexandria won three of its five outings over the weekend.

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The Alexandria Beetles won three of five games last week, taking two from Brainerd before dropping two of three against Rochester over the weekend.

The three wins moved the Beetles closer to the .500 mark with an 8-10 record.

Alexandria 6,

Rochester 0

After being outscored 18-2 in the first two games, both losses, the Alexandria Beetles stormed back to shut out the Honkers and take game three by a score of 6-0 at Mayo Field on Sunday.

Lindsey Caughel (Stetson) was just what the doctor ordered for the Beetles as he went six innings, allowing four hits and striking out six Honker batters.

Caughel was helped out right away by his teammates as Alexandria jumped on Honkers’ starter Grant Muncrief (Wichita State) with four runs in the first two innings. Four different players had an RBI in the first two frames as Muncrief was chased after only two innings of work.

The Beetles added runs in the fifth and eighth innings to make it a 6-0 game. Those runs were all Caughel needed as he was absolutely dealing. Pedro Ramos (Lewis & Clark) came in for Caughel in the seventh and pitched till the end, recording a three inning save, while striking out one and allowing just a hit.

Five different Beetles had an RBI in the game and four players had multi-hit games. Catcher Taylor Davis (Morehead St) went 3-for-5 on the Fathers Day game in front of his dad. Marcus Semien (Cal) went 2-for-3 and scored three runs.

Rochester 3,

Alexandria 0

Richie Jimenez (UNLV) hit a two-run home run for the Honkers on the third pitch that Shawn Riesgraf (St. Cloud State) threw to give Rochester a lead they would never relinquish, shutting out the Beetles 3-0 on Saturday.

Riesgraf shook off the Jimenez home run to go on and pitch seven solid innings, striking out five and only walking two. Tim Roberson (Florida Gulf Coast) was the offensive standout for the Beetles as the third-year Beetle went 2-for-4 with a couple of singles. The base hits were his first of the 2010 campaign in his second game played.

Shawn Martin (San Jose St) got the win for the Honkers. He and three Rochester relievers combined to shut out the Beetles. Arik Sikula (Marshall) pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to record his fourth save of the season.

Rochester 15,

Alexandria 2

Rochester catcher Dan Pellegrino (UC Riverside) had six RBI and Josh McKeon (Upper Iowa) pitched 6 1/3 innings of three hit ball to help the Honkers blast the Beetles 15-2 at Mayo Field in Rochester on Friday.

The game saw an offensive outburst for Rochester as they got 15 runs off of 17 hits. Devin Thaut (Paradise Valley CC) went 4-for-5 on the night and six total Honkers had mult-hit games. Rochester chased Beetles’ starter Brandon Garcia (USC) after four innings of work. Garcia got the loss on the day, allowing eight runs, six of them earned.

The bright spots for the Beetles on the night were first baseman Matt Lowenstein (Loyola Marymount) and third baseman Jake Tanis (Mercer). Lowenstein reached base all four times with a double, single and a pair of walks. Tanis blasted his second home run as a Beetle in the seventh inning on an inside fastball.

Alexandria 4, Brainerd 0

David Randall (Mercer), Wes Rich (Montevallo) and Kevin Vangheluwe (Michigan) combined to shut out Brainerd and Tanis hit his first home run as a Beetle as Alexandria won its third game in a row, 4-0 last Thursday.

The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth when the Beetles strung some hits together. Lowenstein led off the inning with a walk and ended up scoring on an RBI single by Blair Roberts (Air Force). It was Roberts’ first RBI in his last game as a Beetle.

Alvarez led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk and ended up scoring on a two-run bomb by Tanis.

Randall started the game for Alexandria and pitched three innings. Rich pitched the fourth and then Vangheluwe did the rest. The righthanded hurler from Michigan got the win, striking out the last batter he faced to end the game.

“It was the outing of the year” Field Manager Scott Chisholm stated, “He really saved our bullpen by going five innings.”

Alexandria 4, Brainerd 0

The Beetles got amazing pitching from Sander Beck (Maryland) and timely hitting from Semien as they took down the Lunkers 4-0 at Stewart C Mills Field last Wednesday.

The game was scoreless through seven innings as Beck was dealing. The Maryland Terrapin went eight strong innings, allowing three hits and striking out five. He was helped out by strong play in the field from Semien and center fielder Patrick Biondi (Michigan).

The Beetles’ center fielder recorded his third outfield assist of the season when he gunned down Matt Hillsinger (Radford) trying to score on a David Allbritton (Emporia State) flyout.

The Beetles got a run in the top of the seventh with a Will Miller (Furman) sacrifice fly then notched another in the eighth and two more in the ninth. Semien ended the game 2-for-5 with a double, triple and three RBI and Tanis kept his hot bat going with a 2-for-4 night.

GAME STATISTICS

ALEXANDRIA 220 010 010 – 6 12 1

ROCHESTER 000 000 000 – 0 5 3

ALEXANDRIA PITCHING – Lindsey Caughel – W, 6IP, 4H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 6SO; Pedro Ramos – 3IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 2BB, 1SO

ALEXANDRIA HITTING – Marcus Semien – 2-3, BB, 3 runs, SB; Mikel Alvarez – 2-3, BB, RBI, SB; Jacob Tanis – 2-5, 1 run, RBI; Tim Roberson – 1-4, RBI; Taylor Davis – 3-5, 1 run; Matt Lowenstein – 0-3, BB, RBI; Will Miller – 1-3, 2B; Derek Mattea – 0-1; Chad Bunting – 1-3, 1 run, RBI

ALEXANDRIA 000 000 000 – 0 6 0

ROCHESTER 200 100 000 – 3 5 2

ALEXANDRIA PITCHING – Shawn Riesgraf – L, 7IP, 5H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 5SO; Anthony Armanino – 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2SO

ALEXANDRIA HITTING – Patrick Biondi – 1-4; Alvarez – 0-2, 2BB; Tanis – 1-4; Roberson – 2-4; Lowenstein – 1-4; Semien – 0-4; Garcia – 0-4; Miller – 0-4; Bunting – 1-3

ALEXANDRIA 000 000 200 – 2 5 3

ROCHESTER 030 051 330 – 15 17 1

ALEXANDRIA PITCHING – Garcia – L, 4IP, 10H, 8R, 6ER, 1BB, 2SO; Eric Shannahan – 3Ip, 5H, 4R, 3ER, 0BB, 2SO; Eric Birch – 1IP, 2H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 0SO

ALEXANDRIA HITTING – Biondi – 0-3; Birch – 0-1; Semien – 1-4; Alvarez – 0-4; Tanis – 1-4, HR, 1 run, RBI; Lowenstein – 2-2, 2B, 1 run, 2BB; Davis – 0-2, BB; Roberson – 0-1; Miller – 0-2; Mattea – 0-2, RBI; Bunting – 0-2; Graham Spencer – 1-3

BRAINERD 000 000 000 – 0 7 0

ALEXANDRIA 000 020 020 – 4 6 0

ALEXANDRIA PITCHING – David Randall – 3IP, 2H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 1SO; Wes Rich – 1IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 2SO; Kevin Vangheluwe – W, 5IP, 4H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 4SO

ALEXANDRIA HITTING – Biondi – 2-3, BB; Semien – 0-3, BB, RBI; Alvarez – 0-3, BB, 1 run; Tanis – 1-4, HR, 1 run, 2 RBI; Davis – 0-3, BB; Lowenstein – 1-2, 1 run, 2 BB; Miller – 0-3; Mattea – 0-3, 1 run; Roberts – 2-3, RBI

ALEXANDRIA 000 000 112 – 4 9 0

BRAINERD 000 000 000 – 0 3 1

ALEXANDRIA PITCHING – Sander Beck – W, 8IP, 3H, 0R, 0ER, 3BB, 5SO; Rippentrop – 1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 2SO

ALEXANDRIA HITTING – Biondi – 1-4, 2 runs, BB; Semien – 2-4, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI, BB; Alvarez – 2-4, BB; Tanis – 2-4; Garcia – 0-3, 1 run, BB; Davis – 1-4; Lowenstein – 1-3, BB; Miller – 0-3, RBI; Bunting – 0-4, 1 run

Tags: alexandria sports, sports, beetles, baseball, rochester