ROCHELLE — Senior Mark Hopkins had no trouble shutting down the Rock Falls offense Saturday morning, when the Rochelle Hub varsity baseball team hosted the Rockets for a nonconference doubleheader. Hopkins allowed only one hit over five shutout innings on the pitcher’s mound, striking out six batters and leading Rochelle over Rock Falls 11-0 in Game 1.

“My main goal was to go out and execute,” Hopkins said. “I wanted to get ground balls and let my defense help me out. We hit the ball well and our goal was to barrel the ball up and see what we can do. We kept our weight back and we looked for pitches that we could drive. I feel like we’re a team to beat and I don’t think we’re a team anybody wants to cross paths with.”

Rochelle scored three runs in the first inning behind a two-run single up the middle from junior Andy Buskohl and a bases-loaded walk by senior Spencer Warborg. The Hubs went ahead 6-0 in the second inning, adding three more runs courtesy of a passed ball and an RBI single through the left side from Hopkins. Rochelle rallied for four runs with two outs in the third inning, scoring on three extra-base hits from juniors Eric Briseno, Buskohl and Braden Alfano.

Senior Oscar Linares then slapped an RBI single to right to put the Hubs ahead 10-0. Briseno, who went 4-for-4 with two doubles and two singles in the first game, plated Rochelle’s final run with a base hit in the bottom of the fourth inning. Rock Falls went hitless over the last four innings of play, with the team’s lone hit coming on a single in the top of the first inning.

Game 2

Rochelle dropped the doubleheader finale against Rock Falls, falling 13-10 and finishing the afternoon 5-4 on the season. Junior Nate Burdin struck out five batters in four innings on the mound, while senior Evan Meyers tossed two and two-thirds innings of shutout relief. Eric Briseno had another stellar performance at the plate, going 4-for-5 with four runs scored.

The Hubs scored three runs in both the first and third innings to take the early lead over the Rockets. Rochelle plated three first-innings runs behind three consecutive hits from Meyers, senior Kyler Lara and senior Reese Kirk. Junior Forrest Gerber started the Hubs with an RBI double in the third inning, which preceded run-scoring hits from Briseno and Meyers.

Rock Falls exploded for eight runs in the top of the fifth inning, erasing a 6-5 deficit to surge ahead 13-6. A sacrifice fly from Meyers scored one run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Despite falling short, Rochelle finished with a three-run seventh inning that included sacrifice flies from Meyers and senior Sam Hacaga as well as an RBI single from Andy Buskohl.

Sycamore

The Hubs concluded their two-game Interstate 8 series with Sycamore this past Friday, falling 5-3 to the Spartans on the road. Oscar Linares struck out four batters in four and two-thirds innings, while Andy Buskohl led Rochelle at the plate, finishing 2-for-3 with one RBI.

Trailing 1-0, Rochelle tied the game in the second inning on an RBI single from Mark Hopkins. Sycamore surged ahead with one run in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Buskohl’s RBI single plated one run in the fifth inning, while Spencer Warborg hit an RBI single in the sixth.

Fresh/Soph

The Rochelle fresh-soph baseball team edged Sycamore 4-3 this past Friday to improve to 3-2 overall. Noah Lara threw five innings and allowed only two hits, while Christian Burnette struck out three in two innings of relief to earn the save. Lara went 2-for-4 at the plate.

Bradley Cooney hit two doubles and recorded two RBIs for the Hubs. Alex Burnette doubled and totaled two RBIs, while Garrett Gensler scored two runs and Lara added one run scored.