Eric Vachon

Eric Vachon's walkoff RBI single in the bottom of eighth inning gave the Hope College baseball team a 3-2 win and a doubleheader sweep of Alma College on Thursday.

The Flying Dutchmen, who won the first game 6-3, remained in fourth place in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association standings. Their record is 16-18 overall and 12-10 in league play.

Hope plays a doubleheader at Alma on Saturday, April 26, beginning at 1 p.m.

The Flying Dutchmen rallied in the second game after Alma tied the score at 2-2 with one run in the top of the seventh.

Centerfielder Tim Bodine of Gurnee, Ill. (Warren Township HS), led off the eighth with a single. Two batters and one out later, Vachon lined a 1-2 pitch down the left-field line to plate Bodine.

Reliever Ty Van Wieren of Grand Haven (Grand Haven HS) earned the win after two innings of one-run relief. Van Wieren (4-3) walked three and allowed two hits.

Hope scored its other two runs in the fifth after being no-hit for four innings. Designated hitter Alex Arthurs of Holland (West Ottawa HS) and shortstop Alex Hunt of Holland (West Ottawa HS) both delivered RBI singles.

In the first game, the Flying Dutchmen scored six unanswered runs after Alma put up three runs during its first at-bat.

Vachon tripled in second baseman Brady VanderWeele of Kalamazoo (Parchment HS) in the bottom of the first.

Hunt cleared the bases with a three-run double in a four-run fourth. Rightfielder Devin Schaefers of Lake Forest, Calif. (El Toro HS), followed with a RBI single that brought home Hunt.

In the fifth, third baseman Eric Dawson of Grand Haven (Midland HS) singled in Vachon with an unearned run.

Winning pitcher Currey Thomas of Grandville (Grandville HS) scattered five hits and three earned runs over 6 1/3 innings. Thomas (4-4) struck out four. 

Van Wieren retired the final two batters for his first save of the season.