Rio Grande Sports Information
BECKLEY, W.Va. - Josiah Devapalan cracked a go-ahead, two-run seventh inning double to lift the University of Rio Grande to a 6-5 game two win and a doubleheader sweep of West Virginia University-Tech, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference baseball play at Linda K. Epling Stadium.
The sweep of the twin bill, which also included a 7-3 triumph in game one, gave the RedStorm a sweep of the weekend series and a six-game winning streak.
Head coach Brad Warnimont's club improved to 22-16 overall and 7-11 in conference play.
WVU-Tech fell to 11-25 overall and 2-16 against RSC foes.
The Golden Bears grabbed a 1-0 second inning lead in the opener, but Rio Grande scored four times in the third inning and was never headed after that.
Junior Caleb Asjes (Overland Park, KS) had a run-scoring single and Devapalan - a senior from Brampton, Ontario, Canada - hit a solo home run in the go-ahead spurt.
Tech closed the gap to 4-3 with single runs in the fourth and sixth innings, but the RedStorm got one of the runs back in the seventh thanks to an RBI double by redshirt junior Brett Haskins (Ripley, WV) and then added two insurance markers in the eighth thanks to a run-scoring double by sophomore Gregory Catano (Santo Domingo, D.R.) and an RBI single by sophomore Gehrig Cordial (South Charleston, OH).
Catano finished 3-for-4 in the win, while Devapalan and Cordial both had two hits each. Devapalan and Cordial also both doubled.
Freshman KB Perkins (Chillicothe, OH) recorded his fourth win for Rio, allowing nine hits and three runs over 5-2/3 innings.
Fellow frosh Henry Valerio (Hilliard, OH) struck out four over 3-1/3 hitless, scoreless innings for his third save.
Marco Viteri Moran took the loss for the Golden Bears after giving up six hits and five runs over six innings.
Zachary Hunt was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI for WVU-Tech, while Maddex Sims also had two hits and Nolan Copeland contributed a double.
The nightcap saw Rio Grande score once in the first inning and three times in the second for an early 4-0 lead, but the Golden Bears got three runs of their own in the third inning and scored twice more in the fifth to take a 5-4 advantage.
That's how things stayed until the RedStorm rallied in the seventh and final inning.
Haskins and junior Joel Pagan (Humacao, P.R.) both were hit by a pitch to begin the inning and, after a sacrifice bunt by Asjes, both scored on a double to right-center by Devapalan.
Senior Schon Pespisa (El Monte, CA) allowed a pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the inning, but induced Brayden Kiblinger to bounce into a game-ending force out and nail down his third save in as many appearances this week.
Junior Dalton Vance (Taylor, MI), the third of four Rio pitchers, earned the win with 1-1/3 innings of scoreless relief.
Devapalan finished with three RBI in the victory, while Cordial homered and drove in a pair of runs. Catano also hit a solo home run and freshman Jacob Kaiser (St. Marys, OH) chipped in with a double.
Angel Leiva was 3-for-4 with a double in the loss for Tech, while JJ Polvinale had two hits and Kiblinger had a double.
Clayton Hargus, the fifth of seven pitchers for the Golden Bears, was tagged with the loss.
Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Tuesday afternoon when it hosts Bluefield (Va.) University in a single nine-inning, non-conference contest.
First pitch is set for 2 p.m.
