HOLLAND, Mich. — Kalamazoo and Hope went head to head for the second day in a row and with the MIAA championship on the line.
Hope's Kainan Baye started things off for the Dutch with a solo home run in the bottom of the first. But the Hornets were rolling after that.
K-College senior Blake Bean blasted a three run home run over the center field wall in the bottom of the second.
"Going up 4-1 in the second that was big and then got a big zero after that. Our pitches are great today given zeros all the time. We had a tough time getting zeros all year against them. Today was just a great job with the pitchers," said Blake Bean.
Kalamazoo went on to win that game 16-2. The Hornets are now MIAA tournament champions and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA DIII regional tournament next week.
"The crazy thing is six years ago, we wanted on the same day, May 13th, 2016. To do it. Six years later, I was the same lineup of teams, we beat Adrian the first round then beat Hope in the second. they came back around and we beat him again. So I think we put a statement out, I mean, Hope's a tremendous team, but we beat him four outta five times this year. I think we're where we belong to be and I'm really proud of my guys," said Head Coach Mike Ott.
"We're a team 12 Seniors, you know, it's something we've worked for the last three years and you know, to have that season cut short, that kind of took a season away from us to have to have this opportunity. We said from the start, two seed doesn't matter. We can come out and win this thing no matter what," said Spencer Baldwin.
The Hornets will find out their seed and location in the regional tournament during the selection show on Monday, May 16th.
