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Box Score

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (Mar. 19, 2011) - After fighting its way back from a 5-1 deficit, the North Central College baseball team nearly pulled off a come-from-behind win at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, but the Engineers got a two-out home run in the eighth inning to pick up a 8-7 win over the Cardinals at Art Nehf Field on Saturday.

After scoring the game's first run on a double by Michael Corrigan in the first inning, the Cardinals committed two errors in the bottom of the inning and gave up two runs, one of which was unearned, and fell behind by a 2-1 count. Rose-Hulman (9-4) added three more runs in the third, scoring twice with two outs, to expand its advantage to 5-1.

Matt Abraham led off the Cardinal fifth with a single and later scored on an error, and a RBI single by Matt Burke narrowed the gap to 5-3. Abraham singled and later scored on a base hit by Dan Scott in the sixth, and Nick Daniels scored on an error to tie the contest, 5-5.

Burke scored on a fielder's choice in the seventh to give North Central (2-2) a 6-5 lead, but a pair of two-out runs put the Engineers back in front, 7-6, in the bottom of the inning.

The Cardinals got another game-tying run in the eighth. Daniels led off with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Scott, moved to third on a single by Peter Romanello and then scored on a base hit by Tom Ross to level the game at 7-7. With two outs in the eighth, Rose-Hulman leadoff hitter Chris Stemple hit a solo home run, which turned out to be the game-winner as the Cardinals went down in order in the ninth.

Ross went 3 for 5 in his first collegiate start, while Daniels went 2 for 4 and Abraham was 2 for 5. Jon Rashid drew the start on the mound and allowed three earned runs on eight hits in six innings. Tyler Herman took the loss in 1 1/3 innings of relief.

North Central wraps up its series with the Engineers on Sunday at noon Eastern time.