Baseball Finishes Successful Weekend of Play

Following a sweep at Muskegon Community College on Friday, the ACC baseball squad dropped a pair against the Jayhawks on Saturday and split with conference power Grand Rapids Community College on Sunday.

Against Muskegon, the Jacks lost 5-4 and 8-4, while beating GRCC 9-3 and losing the finale, 10-0.

ACC's four game win streak was snapped on Saturday as Muskegon came back from a 4-2 deficit to win in walk-off fashion. Jake Zann singled, doubled and drove in two runs. Kaden Benaske had two hits as well. Brett Moroschan tripled. Kaleb Donajkowski started and threw four innings, striking out five and giving up no earned runs.

In the second game, the Jacks trailed throughout. Nate Koster and Jonny Rensberry each had two hits for ACC, with one of Koster's being a double. Benaske tripled and scored. Jacob Brohl started and took the pitching loss, striking out five in 4.2 innings. Brendan DiBartolomeo threw 1 1/3 innings of shutout relief.

On Sunday, the Lumberjacks picked up their first win against Grand Rapids since at least 1972 in the opener. ACC struck early as leadoff man Maxwell McCarty singled and scored on a Zann double in the first inning. Zann later scored on an RBI ground out by Benaske.

Evan Fairbanks doubled in McCarty in the third to give the Jacks a 3-1 lead. With two outs in the fourth, Rensberry was hit by a pitch, Aiden Bishop singled, McCarty reached on an error and Zann made the Raiders pay with a two-out, two-run single to left for a 5-1 ACC lead.

After GRCC rallied for two in the bottom of the fourth, ACC put it out of reach with four runs scored in the seventh. Fairbanks doubled, scored on a triple by Koster, who then scored on an RBI single by Brett Moroschan. Rensberrry later singled in Anthony Filippis who had run for Moroschan to put the Lumberjacks up 8-3. Bishop then doubled in Zachary Fletcher who had walked during the rally to close out the scoring.

Lane Gross went the distance on the mound, giving up seven hits, three runs and one walk in seven innings, while striking out five.

ACC's bats finally went cold in the last game of the weekend, with McCarty, Zann and Fairbanks tallying the only three Jacks' hits.

The Lumberjacks are in a battle for playoff position in the MCCAA North as the top two teams move on to postseason play. The standings are as follows:

Grand Rapids CC 9-2

Mid Michigan 4-3

Bay 5-4

Muskegon CC 6-5

ACC 6-7

Delta 1-10

But ACC may have a favorable schedule remaining as they have played all five games against GRCC who finished unbeaten in the league last year.

The Lumberjacks (10-21 overall) play Bay College this coming weekend in a pivotal league matchup.