DE PERE, Wis. – The Grinnell College baseball team broke out the bats in big way to stave off elimination at the 2016 Midwest Conference Tournament.
 
The Pioneers pounded out 16 hits, their third-highest output of the season, to post a 12-7 victory over Cornell College Friday in an elimination game.
 
An eight-run third inning paced the Pioneers, who improved to 29-7 and will play host St. Norbert College in another elimination game at 10 a.m. Saturday.
 
Ryan Penaflor went 4-of-6 at the plate for the Pioneers, while Niko Takayesu was 3-for-3. Anthony Mack added two hits and three RBIs and Matt Hammond also had two hits.
 
Mack had a homer among his totals and Penaflor and Hammond each had doubles.
 
Grinnell plated solo runs in the first two innings on sacrifice flies by Sam Galanek and Michael Slattery.
 
The third frame was highlighted by Mack's three-run homer. Fisher, Hammond, Takayesu and Slattery all had RBI singles in the inning which also included two Ram errors as the Pioneers went up 10-0.
 
Cornell then made some noise, scoring three runs in the bottom of the third and four in the fourth to make it 10-7.
 
However, that's all the closer the Rams would get as Grinnell got a run in the sixth frame on Hammond's sacrifice fly and added another in the eighth on Takayesu's run-scoring single.
 
Ben Binversie pitched two-hit ball over four innings of relief to pick up the win.
 
Cornell's season ends at 22-16.
 
Earlier in the day, Beloit College took off with four runs in the second inning and added another in the fourth en route to beating the Pioneers 5-1.
 
The Pioneers, who managed just three hits, scored in the sixth on Mack's solo homer to right-center. Takayesu also had a double for Grinnell in the game.
 
Graham Fisher was the pitcher of record for Grinnell.
 
Beloit followed the game with a victory over St. Norbert to remain in the winner's bracket entering Saturday's action.