Rio Grande Sports Information
PORTSMOUTH, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande entered the final weekend of regular season play needing a sweep of rival Shawnee State University - plus some help from others - to have an opportunity to play in next week's River States Conference Baseball Championship.
But instead of taking three games from the Bears on their home field, it was the RedStorm who found themselves on the business end of the broom.
After suffering a mercy rule-shortened loss in Friday's series opener, head coach Brad Warnimont's club suffered another run-rule setback in Saturday's front end of a doubleheader before enduring a walk off loss in the nightcap.
Shawnee State used home run power to record a 12-2 triumph in game one and then rallied from behind to notch a 6-5 walk off win in the nightcap at Branch Rickey Park.
The host Bears improved to 27-14 overall and 14-9 in league play with the sweep.
Rio Grande closed its season at 17-29 overall and 8-16 in the RSC with the two losses.
The RedStorm jumped to a 2-0 first inning lead in game one thanks to a run-scoring groundout by senior Likeiry Jimenez (Reading, PA) and an RBI single by senior Waskar Martinez (Santiago, D.R.), but Shawnee State countered with a pair of two-run home runs in the third - by Diego Mendoza and Jace Parnin - and a grand slam by Zach Gaspar in the fifth to take an 8-2 lead.
Mendoza added a run-scoring hit in the sixth to make it 9-2, while a two-run single by Tyler Lund and a walk off RBI single by Eli Jones brought the game to a premature end.
Mendoza finished 4-for-4, including a double, and Parnin was 3-for-3, while Jones and Gaspar had two hits each in the winning effort. Hunter Warner also contributed a double.
Ricardo Medrano started and got the win for SSU, allowing four hits and two runs over five innings.
Senior Gabe Carter (Huntington, WV) started and took the loss in his final appearance in a Rio uniform, surrendering eight hits and as many runs over 4-2/3 innings.
Redshirt sophomore Brett Haskins (Evans, WV) had two hits and senior Beiker Fuentes (Crystal Lake, IL) doubled in the loss.
In game two, Rio Grande scored four times in the fourth inning to erase an early 4-1 deficit, but the Bears tied the game in the fifth on a solo home run by Parnin and won it in the seventh on a one-out single by Lund.
Parnin finished 4-for-4 with the home run, a double and two RBI, while Lund was 3-for-4 with a run batted in. Mendoza and Austin Fox also doubled in the win.
Parnin also picked up the victory in relief, tossing two hitless, scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
Redshirt freshman Dax Estep (Chillicothe, OH), the last of four Rio hurlers, took the loss. He surrendered five hits, two walks and two runs over 2-1/3 innings.
Junior Josiah Devapalan (Brampton, Ontario, Canada) had two hits and drove in three runs in a losing cause, while Jimenez and freshman Gregory Catano (Miami, FL) both had doubles.
