Box Score RIPON, Wis. – The Grinnell College baseball team lost the opening game of the 2013 Midwest Conference Tournament Friday afternoon, falling 9-3 to host Ripon College.

Ripon, 22-13 overall, got out to a 5-0 lead and pounded out 15 hits in its win. The Pioneers managed six hits while falling to 13-20 on the season.

Matt Blumenreich '13 led the Pioneers' hitting attack with a pair of singles, while Drew Davis '13, Walker Bell '15, Ryan Penaflor '16 and Adam Renfro '16 all had one hit.

Ripon scored a solo run in the second inning, three in the third and another in the fifth for a 5-0 lead.

The Pioneers sliced into that gap with two runs in the sixth. Davis led off with a single to center and Anthony Mack '16 was hit by a pitch before each moved up a base on a sacrifice by Kainoa Inafuku '14. Bell followed with a two-run single through the left side.

The Red Hawks got a run back in the bottom of the inning for a 6-2 margin. The Pioneers responded in the eighth as Yuki Kawahara '15 and Penaflor walked before Blumenreich's infield single loaded the bases. Matt Schaeffer '14 then reached on an error to plate Kawahara.

However, the hosts scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth to go up by six and held on for the win.

Will Pahos '14, the first of four Pioneer pitchers, suffered the loss.

Grinnell is now slated to play the loser of the Knox College-St. Norbert College contest, but due to rain delays, the time and site of that contest is yet to be determined.