Knox Baseball on March 19, 2025 in Davenport, Florida. (Mike Janes Photography)
Mike Janes
First-year Seth Baumann played the hero with the walk-off winner.
3
Carleton CAR 6-4
4
Winner Knox KNOX 7-6
Carleton CAR
6-4
3
Final
4
Knox KNOX
7-6
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Carleton CAR 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 1
Knox KNOX 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 4 5 1

W: Ward, Brandon (1-0) L: Chang, Ryan (0-1)

Game Recap: Baseball |

Baumann Walks It Off to Finish Florida Trip with a Victory

First-year Seth Baumann hit a two-out, pinch-hit, walk-off RBI double in the ninth.

DAVENPORT, Fla. — First-year pinch hitter Seth Baumann lined a two-out double to right field to drive home sophomore Tyler Kemp from second and give Knox a 4-3 walk-off victory over Carleton College on Monday evening at Northeast Regional Park. The Prairie Fire (7-6) finished their spring trip to Florida with a 3-4 record, while the Knights dropped to 6-4 overall on the season.

Tied at three since a three-run Prairie Fire sixth, senior Henry Scholes got the rally started in the bottom of the ninth by drawing a one-out walk. Kemp came in to run for him and stole second base two pitches later, his Midwest Conference-leading 10th swipe of the season. That led to Carleton playing its entire outfield shallow to cut off a run at the plate on a single. After reliever Ryan Chang (0-1) battled back from a 3-0 count to get the second out on strikes, Baumann stepped to the plate and foiled the defensive alignment by ripping the first pitch he saw over the right fielder's head for the game-winning double.

The Knights had taken the lead with a three-run fourth against Knox starter Leo Dircks. A pair of one-out walks led to an RBI single off the bat of Nathan Barnhart. An error brought home the second run and kept the inning alive, allowing Ananth Iyer to plate the third run with a single for a 3-0 lead.

Carleton starter Will Schnepf departed after five shutout innings during which he allowed a solitary hit while striking out seven. His reliever, however, did not have much going for him as all four Prairie Fire batters he faced reached base, starting with a leadoff double off the bat off junior Luke Mathieu and ending with a bases-loaded walk to get Knox on the board.

Tyler Vandersall was then summoned from the Knights bullpen, and he promptly induced a double play, which brought home another run. But sophomore Nicholas Nitti hit a sinking liner on a 1-0 pitch that the diving right fielder could not quite reach in right-center for a game-tying, RBI single.

The Knox bullpen was stellar as junior Brady Bertrand, sophomores Will Vines and Ayden Fayta, and senior Brand Ward combined to throw two-hit shutout relief over 5.1 innings, striking out seven between them. Ward (1-0) hurled the final two frames, striking out three, and the only hit he surrendered was a two-out triple in the ninth. But he induced a routine fly to right to end the threat and eventually earn his first victory of the season.

Both teams were limited to just five hits in the game with Carleton's Barnhart the lone player with two knocks.

  • This was the first meeting between Knox and the Knight on the diamond since 1977.
  • Ward pitched in five of the seven games in Florida for the Prairie Fire, tossing eight scoreless innings on five hits with 10 strikeouts and nary a walk while earning one victory and saving the other two wins on the trip.

Knox will next play host in a home-opening doubleheader against Maranatha Baptist (2-7) at Blodgett Field on Friday, March 28 at noon. The games will be streamed live with live stats available through PrairieFire.Knox.edu, the official website of Knox Athletics.

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