AUBURNDALE, Fla. - The Illinois Tech baseball team played its fourth game of the Florida trip on Saturday, taking on the Comets of Olivet College (2-5). After taking an early lead, the Comets stormed ahead in the top of the sixth inning and hung on to win 6-1, moving Tech to 2-2 on the season.

Runs-Hits-Errors

• Olivet: 6 runs, 7 hits, 0 errors
• Tech: 1 run, 7 hits, 5 errors

How it Happened

• The Scarlet Hawks jumped ahead first, as after shortstop Orlando Cardenas-Juan singled to extend his hitting streak to four games, a Zachary Dickey walk, and a Ted Howell single, second baseman DJ Rybski singled to drive in Cardenas-Juan and take a 1-0 lead.
• A big moment in the contest happened with the next batter. Right fielder Peter Upham flied out to right field, which was followed by Olivet's right fielder, Logan Wheeler, throwing out Dickey at home on an attempt to tag up and score. The out ended the inning.
• Tech starter Ian Duke and Olivet starter Zac Walter really settled in moving forward. Duke's big highlight was striking out the side in the third inning, at one point getting six straight swinging strikes. Walter escaped trouble twice after leadoff doubled from center fielder Michael Courtney while also managing to keep down his pitch count with just one walk.
• Olivet would jump ahead in the sixth inning. After a single by Aaron Gillespie to extend the inning, Olivet's Junior Gomez doubled down the right field line to take a two one lead.
• The Comets scored twice more in the seventh, as three errors plauged Tech and meat Duke surrendered two unearned runs.
• Olivet would also get to the Scarlet Hawk bullpen, scoring one run a piece of Jacob Geiger in the eighth and Neal Shah in the ninth.  

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

• Duke took the tough-luck loss, going seven innings allowing just two earned runs on five hits, three walks, and six strikeouts.
• Rybski was 2-for-4 and drove in the only run of the ballgame.
• Courtney was 2-for-3 with two doubles and a hit by pitch.

Up Next

• Tech will have two days off from games in Florida before picking it back up on Thursday against Cazenovia at 1:30 p.m. eastern time (12:30 p.m. central). Live audio and stats will be available.