MISHAWAKA, Ind. - Grace's baseball team picked up two important victories against rival Bethel on Wednesday afternoon. With a berth in the conference tournament up for grabs, the Lancers remain in the driver's seat by taking the first two games of the series, 5-4 and 4-3.
In the opener, Matt Friesema belted a home run to get the Lancers on the board right away in the top of the first.
Bethel tied the game an inning later and the game would remain deadlocked until the sixth inning.
Grace manufactured a run with a little bit of help to move ahead by one. Maximo De Leon walked and advanced to third after a throwing error on his stolen base attempt. Friesema picked up his second RBI of the game with a single.
Grant Hartley tacked on an insurance run with a solo blast to lead off the seventh inning. That home run broke the single-season record, marking his 12th of the season.
De Leon legged out a triple with two outs in the eighth, allowing Friesema to bring him home with another RBI single.
The Lancers scored for the fourth consecutive inning in their last at bat. Hartley singled to start the inning. Keenan LeBlanc came on as a pinch runner and forced the Pilots into another miscue to get over to third base. Cayden Calloway followed with an RBI single to make it 5-3.
That run would be the difference as Bethel scored one in the bottom of the ninth before the bullpen closed the door to preserve the one-run victory.
Owen Kirchenstein, Kyle Showley and Sam Justice each pitched 3.0 innings on the mound and combined for eight strikeouts on the day.
Friesema finished the game 3 for 4 with three RBIs and a run. Hartley went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run. Calloway had two hits and one RBI.
The nightcap was a one-run game as well. Evan Etchison went the distance on the mound to bring home the 4-3 win.
The game went into the third inning as a 0-0 draw before Grace strung together three hits in a row to score three runs.
De Leon doubled and Friesema singled to chase him home. Austin Carr followed with a big fly to pick up two RBIs. The second RBI of his at-bat was a record-setting one as Carr became the all-time leader for career RBIs in program history.
The Pilots clawed a run back in the bottom half, but Sean Gannon's RBI single in the next inning put the lead back to three. The Lancers loaded the bases later in the inning, but couldn't push another run across the plate.
Bethel made things interesting over the final two innings to get within a run in the bottom of the seventh. Etchison, however, was able to end the rally, getting a strikeout to end the game for his sixth win of the season. He fanned seven batters in his complete-game outing.
Gannon went 2 for 3 with an RBI. Four others had one hit and one run with Carr adding two RBIs in the game.
Grace heads into the final two games of the regular season with one foot in the conference tournament field. One Grace win or one Goshen loss and the Lancers will lock up the final spot.
The Lancers return to Bethel to complete the four-game series tomorrow at 1 p.m.

Grace Hosts NECC Sportsmanship Summit
WINONA LAKE, Ind. - Grace College and Director of Athletics Chad Briscoe welcomed over 100 student-athletes from area high schools for a Sportsmanship Summit.
The Northeast Corner Conference held the summit on Wednesday on Grace’s campus.
Several student-athletes from each NECC school attended the conference, which was designed to educate student-athletes about sportsmanship and character training in athletics.
"We are pleased to be a part of building character at the high school level through the Sportsmanship Summit," Briscoe said. "We hope it served as a great opportunity to educate and reinforce character education and to help promote the importance of sportsmanship for each student-athlete."
Students spent the day together working in groups to discuss and challenge one another in sportsmanship and character-building opportunities in the athletic realm. The students participated in a number of team-oriented activities to build camaraderie among the schools in the conference.
The Sportsmanship Summit featured sessions from Roger Grossman and Briscoe. Student-athletes also took turns sitting on a panel and answered questions in a peer-to-peer teaching environment.

Men’s Golf Completes Final Tune-Up At Sagamore
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. - Grace’s men’s golf team competed at the Sagamore Shootout on Monday.
The Lancers finished sixth out of nine teams at The Sagamore Club.
Monday’s tournament was Grace’s final tune-up before the 2024 Crossroads League Championship. The championship will be held May 6-7 at Chariot Run in Laconia, Ind.
Camron Jones and Matthew Shull both grabbed top-10 finishes. Jones placed fourth overall with two strong rounds (72-74); his first-round 72 was Grace’s best round of the day.
Shull was also steady, beginning with a 76 and ending with 73 to place ninth on the individual leaderboard.
Luke Rosebrook dropped his score by eight strokes between the first and second rounds, starting with a 87 and ending with a 79.
Tristen Dubbs (83-94) and Isaac Embry (90-88) rounded out Grace’s scoring.
“This was another good tournament for Cam and Matthew, both who finished in the top 10,” said Grace head coach Trey Stoll. “Luke also showed steady improvement between rounds. We are excited to get back to practice for a few weeks as we prepare for conference.”