Holland, MI - Grace Christian Baseball traveled to Hope College on Tuesday for a midweek battle with the Dutchmen, who are currently first in the MIAA standings at a 19-13 record respectively. The Tigers came into the matchup at 16-27 on the year, coming off a 4-game road sweep at Maranatha Baptist. 

The game started as a pitchers' duel with Joe Leavitt shutting the Dutchmen out through the first 5 innings of play. The Tigers struck first in the top of the 5th with 4 runs coming off RBI hits from both Royce Frieburger and Sam Sipe. Hope however, came back in the bottom of the 6th with 4 runs of their own to tie the game. 

Hope added one more run in the bottom of the 7th to make it a 5-4 game, but Grace felt good about their chances. Unfortunately, in the 8th inning, Hope strung together several infield singles and a grand slam. The inning quickly unraveled for Grace as they allowed 7 total runs to score before finally getting out of the jam. Going into the 9th down 12-4, the Tigers failed to plate any more runs, and the game ended with a 12-4 final. 

Joe Leavitt finished with 5.0 innings pitched, 5 hits, 2 runs and 2 strike outs. Brady Unthank also threw a scoreless inning in the game. Offensively, Royce Frieburger and Dale Westphal led the way with 2 hits a piece, while Reagan Mutschler drew 3 base on balls.

"The final score today doesn't tell the whole story," said Coach Wolfe after the loss. "I felt good about how our guys competed today, and we had them right where we wanted them for the majority of the game. We just failed to close it out."

Grace will travel to Detroit on Friday to take on Community Christian College in a double header at 1pm/4pm. The Tigers are 2-0 against the Lions thus far this season.