Buccaneer pitcher
Kaiya Nishino tossed a complete game shutout to bolster Beloit's 9-0 win over Ripon in the second game of a twinbill Wednesday. Nishino's gem helped the Bucs bounce back from an 11-6 loss in the opener. With the split, Beloit is now 14-2 overall and remain on top of the Midwest Conference North Division with an 11-2 mark.
The Bucs were outhit 16-6 in game one leading to the loss. The Red Hawks took an early lead plating three in the top of the first before adding a run in the top of the third.
Beloit responded to tie the game in the bottom of the third courtesy of
Drew Freitag's RBI base on balls, a sacrifice fly from
Matt Crandall and
Nick Schmidt's two-RBI double.
Ripon reclaimed the lead in the fifth with a two-run homer before Beloit came back to knot the game in the sixth.
Deven Irwin registered a sac fly to right that scored
James Wicker and Crandall added another tally in the RBI column with a walk.
The Red Hawks scored in the final three innings of the contest for the 11-6 final. Schmidt and Wicker led Beloit offensively with two hits apiece.
Six Buc hurlers saw action on the mound with
Will Peterson suffering the loss, his first of the season.
The Bucs bounced back in the nightcap getting the offense going early. After blanking Ripon in the top of the first, Beloit brought four in to score in the bottom half of the frame.
Bronson Balholm opened the scoring tagging a ball to right field that bounced under the fielder's glove and went all the way to the fence. Schmidt motored around the bases to score as Balholm made it to three with a standup triple.
Garrison Ferone singled up the middle two batters later to bring in Balholm and swiped second during the next at bat to move into scoring position.
Matt O'Leary made it back-to-back RBI base knocks for a 3-0 lead. O'Leary successfully stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch before coming in to score on
Brett Kiger's sacrifice fly.
Beloit added to their lead in the next inning. Crandall singled with one out, stole second and tagged up on a deep fly ball from Schmidt to advance to third. Balholm drew a walk. In the next at bat, Balholm took off for second and the throw got by the fielder covering two allowing Crandall to score for a 5-0 Buc lead.
The Bucs added insurance runs in the bottom of the fourth, sixth and eighth.
Four Beloit hitters recorded multiple hits in the contest led by a perfect 4-4 performance by Crandall. The Bucs were aggressive on the base paths swiping five bases in the game.
On the mound, Nishino improved to 3-0 on the season scatting eight hits across nine innings of work while striking out two and walking one for the complete game shutout.
