KOKOMO, Ind. – The second day of the 2025 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) baseball tournament wrapped up on Friday night with an instant classic game between the #4 Transylvania Pioneers and the #5 Mount St. Joseph Lions.  At the end of the night, only #1 Manchester remains unbeaten in tournament play.
 
2025 HCAC Baseball Championship Page
 
Two elimination games would start the day with #4 Transylvania taking the field and powering past #6 Franklin in the first game of the day, winning by a score of 10-3.  Weather would not be a factor on Friday, as there were beautiful blue skies and great baseball weather throughout the day in Kokomo. 

The next elimination game had #5 MSJ rolling past #3 Rose-Hulman with a score of 9-5.  Those games outcomes have setup a Friday evening showdown between #5 MSJ and #4 Transylvania.  The winner of that game will stay alive to take on the winner of Game 3 of the day between Manchester and Anderson on Saturday afternoon at 1pm. 
 
In the third game of the day, the top seeded Manchester Spartans took the field for the first time Friday, and faced #2 Anderson. The bats were on fire for this game, with a total of 19 runs being scored in just the last 3 innings. Manchester was able to hold off an Anderson rally in the top of the 9th to advance, winning the game 16-11. They will now sit and wait to see how Saturday morning plays out for the teams in the losers bracket to find out their opponent that they will face at 4:30pm Saturday afternoon.

The final game of the day was between #5 MSJ and #4 Transylvania. The game held tied through 4 innings, with the Pioneers starting to pull away. The Lions fought to rally back in the bottom of the 9th but fell short, dropping the game 5-7, which concluded their run in the HCAC tournament.
 
Fans should stay tuned to the HCAC Baseball Championship page for all of the bracket updates and time indicators as the tournament continues on Saturday.
 
For more information on HCAC Baseball, visit the websites of any of the participating schools, or go to the HCAC's home on the internet at www.heartlandconf.org. Be sure to stay up to date on all of your Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference news by following @HCACDIII on X and by liking the "HCAC DIII" Facebook page.