Playing your rival never gets old.

 

Just ask Hope College baseball coach Stu Fritz.

 

He's been putting the Flying Dutchmen on the field against rival Calvin University since 1994.

 

The pandemic has created many scheduling dilemmas for teams in all sports this year. For baseball, it has meant filling the schedule for games against MIAA opponents that don't count in the conference standings.

 

It resulted in Hope playing rival Calvin seven times so far this spring, four that count in the league standings and three that don't. And there is still the league tournament to be played when the teams could be matched again. The previous high was six games between the teams in 2014.

 

After a Saturday doubleheader sweep of the Knights, Fritz has coached against Calvin 105 times resulting in 61 Hope wins against 44 losses under his leadership. The Hope-Calvin baseball rivalry started in 1925. Hope has an all-time lead in the series of 126-71.

 

"I honestly don't approach our games against Calvin any different than with other opponents, but I have to say it is very exciting to win on a walk off against our rival like we did today," said Fritz. "I have the greatest respect for Calvin and their coach Kevin Van Duyn. They have a solid lineup; hopefully these wins are the springboard that we need to finish strong."

 

The two Saturday wins at Boeve Stadium came about in different ways. The Flying Dutchmen rolled to an easy 10-2 victory in the opener and in the nightcap scored a dramatic come-from-behind 4-3 win in nine innings.

 

Hope trailed 3-0 after three innings of the second game and then scored single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh to force extra innings. The tying run in the seventh came off Spencer Cable's (Hudsonville, Mich./Hudsonville), pictured right, second home run of the day.  He now has five homers on the season.

 

In the ninth inning, Nolan Gardner (Grand Rapids, Mich./East Grand Rapids) singled with one out. He stole second and third. Walks to Kaianan Bayn (Zeeland, Mich./Zeeland East) and Evan Mayday (Grand Rapids, Mich./East Kentwood) loaded the bases. With two outs, Cal Barrett (Chelsea,Mich./Chelsea), pictured left, delivered the game-winning RBI single.

 

Sean Hoey (Holland, Mich./West Ottawa), pictured bottom left, gained the victory (2-0) with four innings of solid relief. He limited the Knights to three hits while striking out two and walking two.Of his 52 pitches, 33 were for strikes.

 

In the first game, Hope spread out its 10-hit offense as nine Hope players had a hit and eight collected an RBI. Cable batted 2-for-4, including a solo homerun. Brant Kym (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) had a pair of singles and Joey Merucci (Northville Township, Mich./Catholic Central) moved into a tie for the leadership in doubles with his eighth.

 

Starting pitcher Al Vasquez (Chelsea, Mich./Chelsea), pictured bottom right. gained the victory (4-3) allowing four hits over six innings. He walked two and struck out one. Freshman closer Reece Crabtree (Reynoldsburg, Ohio/Reynoldsburg) pitched a shutout in the seventh.

 

With three victories in the four-game series, Hope improves to 7-8 MIAA games and 14-13 overall. Calvin slips to 8-8 in the league and 13-13.

 

With eight league games remaining, Hope is in the running for a high seed in the eight-team MIAA tournament next month. They are currently in fifth place, but just two games out of second.

 

The Flying Dutchmen play a four-game series against Albion, first a doubleheader at home on Friday, April 30 and two more at Albion on Saturday, May 1.