TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- This weekend's Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology baseball series against Manchester University will now take place on Saturday and Sunday due to projected weather forecasts.
The series opens with a single nine-inning game on Saturday at 1 p.m., followed by a doubleheader on Sunday at noon. The change is due to a Sunday weather forecast featuring temperatures 15 degrees higher than Friday and Saturday.
Rose-Hulman stands 8-6 on the season and 3-1 in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play after defeating Franklin 7-1 on Tuesday night. Junior Caleb Kissel leads the offense with a .436 batting average on 24 hits and five doubles. Senior Patrick Klima is also over the .400 mark at .408 with 20 hits, three doubles, one home run and 15 runs scored.
Other Fightin' Engineers above .300 include Kevin Jendra (.333), Josh Koutnik (.333) and Zach Trusk (.315).
On the mound, Rose-Hulman used the rotation of Andrew Stull (2-2, 1.61 ERA), Karson Nixon (0-1, 0.70) and R.J. Carroll (2-1, 3.43) in last weekend's series against Defiance. Junior Alec McNally is 1-0 with two saves and a 0.00 ERA out of the bullpen, and senior John Krasich has added five appearances with one save.
Manchester has a 10-3 record and a 3-0 conference mark entering the series. The Spartans won the HCAC regular season title last season, before Rose-Hulman won the league tournament at Manchester to earn a trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament. In their last trip to Art Nehf Field, Manchester won the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional in 2013 to advance to the Division III World Series.
Offensively, Elliot Ford (.442, 1 2B), Jordan Nieman (.433, 26 H, 3 2B, 4 3B, 4 HR) and Justin Miller (.415, 1 2B, 1 HR) are each hitting over .400 for the Spartans this spring. Last week, the Spartans used the starting rotation of Sean Liedtky (2-0, 5.40), Corey Ferguson (2-0, 5.40) and Taylor Kopplin (1-0, 2.30, 2 SV) in a series sweep at Transylvania.
After this weekend's series, Rose-Hulman travels to Franklin for another conference matchup on Tuesday. Live coverage links will be added when plans are finalized.
