PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — Senior Clint Scarborough smacked a walk off grand slam in the bottom of the eleventh inning as Wabash College defeated No. 16 ranked Marietta College 15-13 Wednesday (March 11) in the Snowbird Classic. The Etta Express drops to 2-3 on the season, while Wabash improves to 3-2 overall.
The Etta Express built leads of 4-1, 8-4 and 10-7 but the Little Giants battled back each time. Wabash scored twice in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings. Following a scoreless tenth inning, Marietta plated three runs in the top of the eleventh only to watch Wabash steal the victory with five runs in the bottom of the inning.
Eric White (North Royalton/North Royalton) led off the top of the eleventh with a single up the middle and moved into scoring position on an errant pickoff attempt. A sacrifice bunt from
Christian Demko (Xenia/Bellbrook) pushed the go ahead run to third. White scored on a wild pitch to put the Pioneers back in front, 11-10.
PackanikWabash struck out the next Marietta hitter for the second out of the inning.
Tim McCoy (Willoughby/St. Ignatius) forced a walk brining
Mitch Geers (West Chester/Lakota East) to the plate. Geers laced a single to right center and the speedy McCoy came all the way around to score. After stealing second, Geers made it 13-10 when he scored on an RBI-single from
Michael Barnabei (Pickerington/Pickerington Central).
Freshman
Derek Varner (Cincinnati/Turpin) took over on the mound for the Pioneers in the bottom of the eleventh. Varner walked leadoff hitter Tanner Watson and then struck out the next batter. Back to back singles from David Oliger and Andrew Rodgers loaded the bases.
Marietta went to the bullpen again and brought in senior Michael Fulton. Fulton retired the first batter he faced on a fly ball to deep left. Watson tagged up and scored on the sac fly to cut the deficit to 13-11.
A walk to Tyler Owensby loaded the bases with two outs for Scarborough. Scarborough deposited Fulton's 2-1 pitch over the leftfield wall completing the comeback.
Ryan Hanahan (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland) went 3-for-5 with a double and two RBI for the Pioneers.
Tyler Packanik (Plant City, Fla./Newsome) and
Brandon Papp (Uniontown/Green) each had two doubles, while Geers, Barnabei, White and Demko finished with two singles in the game.
PappFulton (0-2) took the loss after allowing two runs on one hit in 0.1 innings of work.
Ray Sowinski (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) started for the Pioneers and threw 3.1 innings. Sowinski gave up five runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out two.
Scott Oberhelman (Washington Twp., N.J./Old Tappan),
Mitch McNabb (Grove City/Bishop Ready) and Varner all threw in relief.
Christian Vukas (1-1) got credit for the win despite allowing three run on three hits in 1.0 inning of work. Alan Corey started for the Little Giants and tossed 4.0 innings and giving up eight runs on six hits.
Oliger went 4-for-5 with four RBI and a double, while Lucas Stippler was 3-for-7 to lead Wabash.
Marietta is back in action Wednesday (March 11) morning against regional opponent Wabash College. Fans can follow the Etta Express all season long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
