NORTH MANCHESTER, IND. – Justin Miller went up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth Friday, April 17, looking to start a potential game-winning rally for Manchester University.

To the delight of the crowd of 167 fans at Gratz Field, a good share of them cheering for the Black and Gold, Miller's plan went another step. The senior from Yorktown, Ind., got a 0-1 fastball from Mt. St. Joseph University hurler Nathan Lambert and drove it off the top of the press box at neighboring Carl W. Burt Memorial football Field for the winning run in a 5-4 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference decision.

"I knew my teammates coming up behind me would keep things going if I got on base," Miller said. "It turned out, I was fortunate to get a good pitch to hit. This was a big way to start the weekend series for us … we'd hit a little tough spot lately and needed to get back on track."

Miller's blast concluded a back-and-forth late April afternoon. The visiting Lions (10-16 overall, 5-11 HCAC) held a 2-0 lead after four and a half frames due to an RBI single from Kyle Kittle in the second and an RBI sacrifice fly off the bat of Ronald Cotton in the fifth. However, after having their offense silenced on only one hit through four innings, the Spartans (15-11, 8-8 HCAC) responded. A pair of singles from junior catcher Elliott Ford (Rome City, Ind.) and Miller led to a run in the fifth that was aided by an error, while singles from senior centerfielder Kyle Norris (Indianapolis, Ind.) and senior third baseman Jordan Nieman (Michigan City, Ind.), coupled with a sacrifice bunt from sophomore first baseman Tailur Szarenski (Bluffton, Ind.) and a run-scoring sacrifice fly from junior leftfielder Sean Knepper (Bremen, Ind.), brought in the tying run in the home half of the sixth.

MU went on to hold 3-2 and 4-3 leads but, at each turn, MSJ rallied back to tie the contest. The final visiting run, scoring on a double in the top of the ninth, set the stage for Miller.

The Black and Gold, moving within a game of idle Rose-Hulman for fourth place and a game and a half behind Bluffton University for third place on the league standings, resume their weekend set with MSJ Saturday, April 18. A doubleheader begins at 12 p.m.

NOTES: Nieman, who joined Miller and Norris in having two-hit afternoons, tacked on another game to his already-lengthy hitting and on-base skeins. He stands at 28 for both going into Saturday … Szarenski, with an eighth-inning single, upped his on-base string to 29 in a row, while Norris increased his on-base link to 22 straight games … The victory increased the Black and Gold's win streak over MSJ to 14 straight.