19 Mar 2025 Warriors drop two versus Grinnell
CONWAY — Hendrix dropped both games of a two-game homestand versus Grinnell College. The Pioneers outlasted the Warriors 18-15 in the first game before shellacking Hendrix 17-3 in a run rule-shortened affair on Tuesday evening.
Game 1 (L, 18-15)
Connor Bryson put the Pioneers down in order to begin the game and turned it over to the offense, who immediately obliged their starting pitcher by plating five runs in the bottom of the inning. Shaun Pope led off the inning with a single to right field and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Zane Nolan. Ian Guthrie singled to right field to put runners on the corners before Owen Shaw scored Pope with an RBI single to left. Drake Job loaded the bases with a single through the right side, and Guthrie was eventually brought in on a Jacob Carpentier fielder’s choice. Nick Echaniz poked a two-out single through the left side to score Shaw and Job for a 4-0 lead, and Austin Rabago drove in the fifth run with an RBI single to score Carpentier. Echaniz was thrown out 942 on the play to end the inning.
The next two innings snowballed on the Warriors as Grinnell scored six runs in the second and four runs in the third and took an 11-5 lead into the bottom of the fourth. Hendrix plated three runs in the inning to cut the lead to three, but the Pioneers added four more runs in the fifth to take a 15-8 lead. The Warriors added two runs in the sixth with an RBI each from Shaw and Watts to trim the lead to five before Grinnell tacked on two more in the fifth to go ahead 17-10. The seventh inning was a big one for Hendrix as they scratched across five runs to make it a two-run game but were ultimately unable to make up the difference in the end.
Zane Nolan, Ian Guthrie, and Drake Job led the Warriors with three hits apiece, with Guthrie recording a team-high three RBIs on the evening. Hogan Ralston and Braxton Waller each tossed a scoreless frame in relief.
Game 2 (L, 17-3)
As Bryson did on Monday, Cole Joyner pitched a 1-2-3 inning in his first inning of work on Tuesday to start off brightly. Shaun Pope reached first on a hit-by-pitch and advanced to third when Drake Job single to right center field. Owen Shaw brought in Pope for the game’s first run with a single to center field, and Charlie Deaton then singled to left field to bring in Job and make it 2-0. The side was then retired as Hendrix left two in scoring position to end the inning.
The game then blew up on the Warriors as Grinnell exploded out to a 10-2 lead heading in the home half of the third inning before Hendrix was able to add another run courtesy of a Joseph Watt’s RBI single to score Deaton. That was the final run that Hendrix was unable to manufacture on the evening as the Pioneers scored seven more runs over the next three innings to run-rule the Warriors.
Despite the loss, a couple of younger arms shined as Nathan Buchman allowed no earned runs over 2.0 IP, and Rowan Glover tossed a 1-2-3 frame in the 7th inning with a strikeout. Charlie Deaton had himself a day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
