Rio Grande Sports Information
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Daniel Rutherford clubbed a pair of home runs, drove in five runs and allowed just three hits and a run on the mound to lead the University of Rio Grande to a 6-1 game two win over Indiana University Southeast, Sunday afternoon, in River States Conference baseball action at St. Xavier High School.
The victory gave the RedStorm a series win after the Grenadiers rallied from an early deficit in the opening game of the twin bill to post an 11-5 victory.
Rio Grande finished the weekend at 9-12 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
The game two loss left IU Southeast - which was ranked No. 18 in the most recent NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll - at 4-11 overall and 1-2 in the RSC.
Rutherford, a junior from Coal Grove, Ohio, staked the RedStorm to a first inning lead with a two-out, two-run home run to center and, after the Grenadiers pushed across a second inning marker to cut the deficit in half, added a three-run homer to right in the third inning to make it 5-1.
Senior Clayton Surrell (Carroll, OH) added a run-scoring single in the fourth inning to set the final score.
Rutherford also took over on the mound after junior starter Brady Choban (Wadsworth, OH) allowed a hit and a walk in his lone inning of work and allowed three hits and walk over six innings. He fanned six en route to his first win in three decisions.
Rutherford finished with three hits, while Surrell was 2-for-3 with a double and junior Jakob Johnson (Pickerington, OH) had two hits of his own.
Tyler Yotkewich started and took the loss for IUS, allowing six hits, a walk and all six runs over four innings.
Trevor Goodwin and Slater Schield both doubled for the Grenadiers.
Rio Grande also started well in game one, bolting to a 3-0 lead thanks to an RBI single by junior AJ Thomas (Pickerington, OH) and a two-run single by Rutherford.
The Grenadiers got one of the runs back in the bottom of the second inning before Rutherford countered with a solo home run to make it 4-1.
From that point on, though, it was all home team.
Southeast scored twice in the third inning and once in the fourth to knot the score at 4-all.
Rio Grande briefly got the lead back in the fifth inning thanks to a sacrifice fly by graduate senior Andrew Daria (Villa Hills, KY), but the Grenadiers got the run back in the home half of the frame before scoring four times in the sixth and twice more in the seventh to win going away.
Freshman Daewin Spence (Portsmouth, OH), the second of five Rio pitchers, suffered the loss after allowing two hits, three walks and four runs over 2-1/3 innings.
Garrett Hill, the final of four Southeast hurlers, got the win after tossing three innings of one-hit shutout relief. He also struck out seven.
Kody Putnam led the Grenadiers at the plate by going 3-for-5 with three RBI. Goodwin had two hits and three RBI of his own, while Schield and Garrett Jones both had two hits and a run batted in.
Trevor Campbell also had two hits and Mason White doubled in the winning effort for IUS.
Thomas and Rutherford had two hits each and Surrell had a double in a losing cause for the RedStorm.
Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action next Friday when it hosts perennial River States Conference power Point Park University in the opening game of a three-game weekend series at Bob Evans Field.
First pitch is set for 2 p.m.
