By RICK PETERSON
Washburn's Ian Luce hit a home run and had four RBI in Saturday's 12-4 MIAA road win over Rogers State. [File photo/TSN]Neither team got on the board in the first two innings of action with former Seaman standout Maclane Finley keeping the Hillcats off the board.
Trenton Barry led off the Washburn third with a single and came around to score with two outs on a single by Jack Borgmann, putting Washburn up 1-0.
Next time at the plate, a walk followed by a single from Brooks Richardson put Ichabods two on.
Both scored on a double to right field from Barry. Ian Luce followed that with his second home run of the week over the right field wall to put Washburn up 5-0.
Rogers State was held scoreless until it strung together a pair of walks with two hits to score two in the fifth inning.
After the Hillcats got two on with one out in the sixth Griffin Huiatt took over on the mound.
The bases filled up but Huiatt got out of the inning scoreless to maintain the lead.
Next time up Rogers State did score two runs, on a pair of bases-loaded walks, cutting the deficit to one.
After Richardson led off the eighth with a single Washburn added some insurance with a two-out double from Levi Risenhoover.
In the top of the ninth Brandt Beeby led off with a homer to right field. After a walk and two grounders Richardson found a hole up the middle to plate another run.
Barry walked and Luce plated two more with a double into right. Risenhoover reached on a double and Borgmann drove both in with a single to cap the six-run ninth.
Caleb Lunnon tossed a scoreless ninth to finish off the first ranked victory of the season for the Ichabods.
Washburn led 16-11 in hits while the Hillcats had a 10-6 advantage in walks.
Four pitchers combined for 10 strikeouts for the Ichabods.
Maclane Finley went five-plus innings to pick up the victory in Washburn's 12-4 romp past No. 7 Rogers State. [File photo/TSN]
Finley went 5.1 innings in his start allowing two earned run as he earned his fifth win of the season. Fidel Hatch tossed 1.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen with three strikeouts.
Richardson went 4-5 at the plate and drove in one run, one of six players with multi-hit days.
Luce went 3-6 with a home run to drive in four runs and Borgmann went 2-5 with three RBI and Beeby also went 2-5 with a home run.
