AUBURNDALE, Fla. - The Grove City College baseball team saw their Florida Spring Training trip end in heartbreaking fashion as the Wolverines fell to Rensselaer Polytechnic 2-1 in 11 innings in their final game of the RussMatt Central Florida Baseball Invitational on Saturday morning.

Sophomore John Bini (Staten Island, N.Y./Xaverian) was stellar on the mound for the Wolverines (3-7), bending but never breaking as he scattered 11 hits and struck out four while allowing a single unearned run over 10 and one-third innings of action. Junior left fielder Tyler Graham (Vandergrift, Pa./Kiski Area) had two of Grove City's five hits and added a stolen base while sophomore right fielder Shane Hammel (Fort Collins, Colo./Fossil Ridge) drove in the lone Wolverine run.

For the game's first eight innings, it was Bini and RPI's Patrick McMackin locked in a pitcher's duel, as both men escaped multiple scoring opportunities for the opposing side. McMackin's day for the Engineers (1-6) would end in the top of the ninth, but Bini continued on, needing just 111 pitches to get through 10 innings.

In the top of the 11th, senior catcher Andy Fritz (Saxonburg, Pa./Knoch) led off with a single down the left field line, and senior utility Nolan Myers (Landisville, Pa./Hempfield) entered for Fritz as a pinch runner. After a strikeout, Myers advanced to second on a wild pitch and then to third on an infield single by sophomore third baseman Micah Burke (Gilbert, Ariz./EVAC). That was enough for Hammel to lay down a well-executed sacrifice bunt for the squeeze play as Myers scored to give Grove City a 1-0 lead.

Bini went back to the mound for the top of the 11th and, after battling back from a 3-1 count, induced the ground ball he needed, but RPI's Noah Normyle reached on Grove City's fifth fielding error of the day. A sacrifice bunt would move Normyle to second, and that would mark the end of Bini's day at 118 pitches.

Unfortunately, the Wolverine bullpen couldn't seal the deal, as the Engineers' Justin Valente put the first pitch he saw into center field to score pinch runner Jimmy Jankowski and advanced to second on the throw home. After a wild pitch moved Valente to third, a Christian Spagnuola single scored Valente to end the game.

The loss was the fourth one-run setback for the Wolverines and their third in extra innings.

Grove City is slated to begin the northern portion of its 2017 schedule on Wednesday at Penn State Beaver for a single nine-inning game at 3 p.m.