The bat of senior second baseman John Rubino fueled the Eastern Michigan University Eagles baseball team's (14-23, 4-8 MAC) victory over Washtenaw County rivals the University of Michigan Wolverines (21-16, 6-6 BIGTEN) by a score of 4-2 on Wednesday in Ann Arbor.
Rubino helped the Eagles with a phenomenal game against the Wolverines, going 5-for-5 at the plate including hitting a triple, while earning two RBIs and stealing four bases. Rubino’s bat motivated the Eagles to break their four game losing streak.
Relief pitcher Sam Delaplane (3-1) earned his third win of the season after pitching one and one-third innings, but it was freshman starting pitcher Kyle Huckaby (3-1) that had a strong outing against Michigan.
Huckaby pitched for only three innings, but earned two strikeouts and gave up one run on one hit. Huckaby’s impressive afternoon came a week after the University of Michigan took Eastern Michigan University pitchers for a combined 20 hits on April 7.
On Wednesday, the Eagles gave up seven hits but only allowed two runs, a significant turn-around from last week’s outing.
In the first inning, it was John Montgomery who doubled to right field, allowing John Rubino to score. Montgomery struck again in the third inning when he struck for a triple, and allowed Rubino to score once again, putting the Eagles up 2-0 after three innings.
In the fourth inning, the Wolverines cut the deficit in half when a single allowed the Wolverines to score and start their comeback attempt.
The Wolverines scored again in the sixth inning to tie the game at two when a double play allowed a run to score. The game was then scoreless until the ninth inning.
John Rubino walked up to the plate with an already stellar game behind him and hit a triple to center field, allowing Jordan Peterson and David Lett to score. The Eagles went up 4-2 in the top of the ninth and did not look back.
Delaplane and the Eagles’ defense shut down the bottom of the ninth and earned the Eagles’ first win since April 8.
John Montgomery also had a positive day at the plate, going 2-for-3 and earning two RBIs. Augie Gallardo, Michael Marsinek and Matthew Beaton also pitched in the game.
Looking Forward:
The Eastern Michigan University baseball team will face off against the Ball State Cardinals in a three-game series in Ypsilanti this weekend. Ball State has an overall record of 23-12 and a conference record of 8-4. First pitch of the series is scheduled to be thrown out at 6 p.m. on Friday.
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Follow Robert Sherman on Twitter: @r__sherman
