INDIANAPOLIS - The Marian College baseball team did something on Tuesday it was unable to do last season: qualify for the MCC Tournament through the play-in series.

 

The Knights split with Indiana Wesleyan on Monday afternoon in a doubleheader, but the two teams were forced to hook it up one more time on Tuesday with a trip to the tournament on the line.

 

The Knights responded to the pressure situation early as senior Chad Morris (Whitestown, Indiana/Vermont) led off the bottom of the first inning with a single. Sophomore Todd Ungru (Madison, Indiana/Shawe Memorial) also singled and senior Kyle Cox (Indianapolis/Butler) brought Morris to the plate to give the Knights a 1-0 lead after one inning.

 

They added one more in the third as freshman Jeff Marschand (Galveston, Indiana/Lewis Cass) scored on a passed ball to give the Knights a 2-0 lead.

 

The show was then turned over to freshman lefthander Neil Hackett (LaPorte, Indiana/LaPorte) who threw a masterpiece. Hackett threw eight innings, allowed just one run on four hits, and struck out 11. He allowed the single run on an RBI-single in the top of the eighth before nailing down the third strike on a swinging strikeout.

 

Junior Tony Goodpaster (Avon, Indiana/Wabash) was asked to close out the ninth and, after making it interesting, he did to earn his third save of the season.

 

Morris led the Knights after he went 3-for-4 with a run scored. Ungru and Goodpaster each had a hit and Cox drove in a run for the Knights.

 

The Knights will head to the Mid-Central College Conference Tournament as the No. 6 seed and will take on the No. 1 seed and regular season champion Spring Arbor University in Marion, Indiana on May 2.