TIFFIN, Ohio — Saturday (May 15) marked the third straight year that #17 Marietta College and #3 Heidelberg University met to decide the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament title in Peaceful Valley. The result mirrored the two previous match-ups, as the Student Princes claimed a third straight OAC Tournament championship with a 9-0 victory over the Etta Express. [Box Score]

The win enabled Heidelberg (37-6) to earn the OAC's automatic bid to the 2010 NCAA Division III Regional Tournament. Marietta (32-11) will wait for a call Monday (May 17) morning to see if it will get invited to the 2010 Mideast Regional, which will take place May 19-23 at Don Schaly Stadium.

OAC Tournament MVP Brian Koehl limited Marietta's offense to just five hits in the complete game shutout victory. Koehl, who improved to 8-0, struck out five in the win.

Junior #Casey Levens (Dayton/Centerville)# suffered the loss to fall to 1-2 on the season. He allowed six runs on 11 hits, walked two and struck out one in 5 1/3 innings.

Sophomore second baseman #Kirby Becker (South Euclid/St. Ignatius)# collected two of the Pioneers' five hits. Senior catcher #Dan Jones (Lima/Shawnee)# also had a single to extend his hitting streak to 25 games. Gar Keen and Alex Monroe lead Heidelberg's 15-hit attack with three hits apiece.

Heidelberg took a 1-0 lead in its first at-bat and went ahead 2-0 in the second frame. The Student Princes then tacked on five run in the bottom of the sixth to stretch their advantage to 7-0. Heidelberg added another insurance run in the seventh and eighth innings to boost its lead to 9-0.

Following the tournament, junior #Britt Meador (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne)# and sophomore #Austin Blaski (Pandora/Gilboa)# were named to the 2010 All-OAC Tournament Team.