Southern Shines, Ravens Advance Past Rose-Hulman Behind Big Eighth Inning

A big eighth inning propelled the second-seeded Anderson University baseball team past the third-seeded Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology during Thursday's Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Tournament matchup at Kokomo Municipal Stadium.

Landen Southern notched his 310th career strikeout, breaking the Anderson school record. He broke the previous record of 303 set by 1990 graduate Brian Heigle. After a slow start and giving up two runs in the first, Southern (6-1) found his groove and dominated on the mound. Southern struck out 16 batters, the most by a Raven since 2017. The senior from Lafayette issued six walks and allowed two unearned runs on five hits in eight and two thirds innings.

The Fightin' Engineers (23-18) took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, but the Ravens (26-14) immediately responded. Charlie Jones led off the inning with a double. Consecutive groundouts allowed Jones to score and cut the deficit to one.

After the first inning, a pitching duel ensued between Southern and Rose-Hulman's Brady Strawmyer as neither allowed a run in the next five innings. In the bottom of the seventh, the Ravens loaded the bases on their first three batters. Strawmyer struck out the next two, but Dylan Hogan cracked a perfectly place single to drive in the run from third and tie the game at 2-2.

Trey Dorton led off the eighth with a double down the rightfield line. Griffin Wolf bunted for a single to put runners on the corners. Zac Stawski also laid down a bunt and Dorton beat the throw home to put Anderson ahead 3-2. Brendan Tabor blew the game open with a two-run double, extending Anderson's advantage to 5-2 with no outs. Ben Seitzinger singled in a run before the inning was over.

In the ninth, Justin Schassburger inherited a four-run lead in a bases-loaded situation and punched out the only batter he faced to collect his fifth save of the season.

Anderson outhit Rose-Hulman 9-5. Jones went 2-for-4 with a double on the day. Tabor provided a two-run double while Dorton added a double. Wolf, Daniel Barreca, Seitzinger and Hogan rounded out Anderson's nine hits with singles.

Anderson clashes with top-seeded Manchester University (27-12) in the HCAC Tournament on Friday at 4:30 p.m. at Kokomo Municipal Stadium.