AUBURNDALE, Fla. — A balanced offensive attack and strong pitching allowed the Knox College baseball team to begin its seven-game spring trip to Florida with a 12-4 victory over Salem State (2-3) at Lake Myrtle Park on Tuesday afternoon. The Prairie Fire (5-2) banged out 11 hits, drew nine walks and swiped seven bases to constantly put pressure on the Vikings' defense and match their best seven-game start to a season in 18 years.
Junior right-hander Jeff Ripka improved to 3-0 on the young season, tossing five-plus innings while allowing just one unearned run on three hits and three walks while striking out three. Senior Brandon Ward, who entered with two on and nobody out in a 6-2 game in the seventh, tossed three shutout innings to close out the game, striking out three along the way, to pick up his second save of the season.
Knox scratched out solitary runs in the first and second stanzas before the Vikings got one back in the third on an error. With two more runs in the bottom of the third, the Prairie Fire carried a 4-1 lead into the sixth when they added two tallies to their total.
Salem State made it a game in the seventh, plating three runs on two hits, a walk and an error, only to have Knox respond with four on just one hit — a bunt single — plus three walks, two squaeeze bunts, two stolen bases, a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch. Junior Andrew Garrett supplied an RBI double — one of just two extra-base hits in the entire contest — in a two-run eighth to complete the scoring.
Senior Holden Jones, junior Thomas Wilmot and first-year Hayden Derlein each had two hits for Knox, while sophomore Aidan McMurtrie had two RBIs, one of eight players to drive in a run.
Nolan Currier (0-1) was tagged with the defeat for surrendering four runs, only one earned, on six hits and three walks over four frames while fanning five.
Knox will next play on Wednesday at Northeast Regional Park in Davenport, Florida, against Plattsburgh State (4-5) at 4:15 p.m. (EDT). Fans who would like to watch online can purchase a subscription to BeTheBeast.com; links are provided for each game in Florida on the Knox baseball schedule at PrairieFire.Knox.edu, the official website of Knox Athletics.
