Rio Grande Sports Information
KOKOMO, Ind. - Indiana University Kokomo built big leads in both ends of its doubleheader with the University of Rio Grande and went on to sweep its River States Conference baseball twin bill with the RedStorm, Sunday afternoon, at Municipal Stadium.
The Cougars rolled to a 12-5 triumph in the opener and held on for an 8-6 victory in the nightcap as the two teams wrapped up their respective regular season schedules.
IUK, which also won Friday's series opener, upped its record to 26-19 overall and 17-10 in conference play.
The sweep also allowed the Cougars to wrestle away the No. 4 seed from the RedStorm for the upcoming RSC Tournament.
Rio Grande slipped to 24-26 overall and 14-13 in league play.
The RedStorm trailed 6-0 after three innings in game one and were within two outs in the seventh inning of falling victim to 10-run mercy rule before scoring twice to extend the contest.
Rio set the final score with two more runs in the ninth inning.
Graduate senior Andrew Daria (Villa Hills, KY) finished 3-for-5 with a double and two runs batted in, while junior Daniel Rutherford (Coal Grove, OH) was 2-for-4 with a triple and an RBI and sophomore Angel De La Cruz (Santo Domingo, D.R.) was 2-for-5 with a run batted in.
Freshman Daewin Spence (Portsmouth, OH) started and took the loss, allowing six hits, five walks and six runs over 2-2/3 innings.
JT Holton, the first of six IUK pitchers, got the win after allowing five hits and a run over six innings.
Jack Leverenz led the Cougars' 15-hit offensive attack, going 3-for-5 with a double and three RBI. Luke Barnes homered, tripled and drove in three runs, while Nolan Bowser had two hits and two RBI and Riley Garczynski was 2-for-5 with a run batted in.
Noah Hurlock also doubled and drove in two, while Tucker Platt and Dylan Steele added two hits each.
In the seven-inning nightcap, the Cougars enjoyed an 8-0 advantage after four innings before the RedStorm made things interesting late.
Rio scored five times in the fifth and once in the sixth to get within two, but failed to mount any kind of rally in the seventh to complete the comeback.
Senior Clayton Surrell (Carroll, OH) finished 3-for-3 to lead the RedStorm at the plate, while Rutherford drove in three runs.
Surrell started on the mound and took the loss, allowing three hits and three runs over 2-1/3 innings.
Ben Harris allowed one hit over three shutout innings to get the win.
Gavin Smith hit a pair of home runs and drove in three for IUK, while Leverenz and Cade Combs each hit solo home runs.
Steele had a double and Blake Kimball drove in two runs in the winning effort.
Rio Grande, which will be seeded fifth in the RSC Tournament, will face No. 2 seed Point Park University in Thursday's opening round.
First pitch is set for 3 p.m. at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe.
