Box Score ORLANDO, Fla. - On a cool and breezy day, one that felt more like spring in Iowa than Florida, Grinnell College (4-1) beat its fellow Iowa institution, Loras College (3-3), 13-3 (7 inn) in non-conference play.
Sam Tinkham '16 started for the Pioneers and collected his first win of 2016 with a devilish statistic line of six strikeouts and six hits allowed in six innings of work. In his first start on the young season, the 2014 MWC South Division Pitcher of the Year threw 94 pitches but it was his often-effective changeup that continued to fool the Duhawks.
Tinkham on his outing, "It was a good first start, I just tried to work ahead and throw strikes and obviously the other guys did a great job of putting a lot of runs on the board so I just wanted to work quick and get us back in the dugout as fast as possible."
"My change up and off-speed pitches worked really well and helped to catch them off-balance. We made a few good in-game adjustments like working on the inner half of the plate and throwing off-speed pitches early in the counts."
The "other guys" would be the slowly emerging Pioneer offense. After being held to six total runs in their first three games, Grinnell has now scored 19 runs in the last two games. On Tuesday, the driving force was the trio in the heart of the order,
Sam Galanek '18,
Graham Fisher '16 and
Matt Hammond '17, Grinnell scored in four of their offensive innings, including a huge seven-run top of the seventh inning to put the mercy rule into effect at the completion of the bottom of the inning.
Galanek had two hits and scored twice, Fisher reached base four times, including a two-run home run and a triple, while Hammond emerged from a slow start to his season by doubling twice and driving in three.
"It was nice to finally feel comfortable at the plate after a few rough games. It's great to have an opportunity to play in Florida and figure things out before we start conference play," Hammond said after the game.
Pioneers are back in action tomorrow against Greenville College in a doubleheader starting at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.
