NEW CONCORD, Ohio — Pitching rules the day as Marietta College split an Ohio Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader with rival Muskingum University Saturday (April 4) afternoon. The Fighting Muskies won the opener 2-1 in 15 innings, while the Etta Express earned the split with an 8-1 win in game two.
It was an old-fashioned pitchers duel in game one.
Christian Herstine (Beaver, Pa./Beaver Area) started on the mound for the Pioneers and Derrick Barker toed the rubber for Muskingum. Herstine allowed one run in 9.0 innings of work, while Barker gave up one run in 11.0 innings.
Muskingum got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the third inning. Herstine walked a pair of Muskies and then threw a wild pitch to move both runners up 90 feet. Brett Roberts delivered a sac fly scoring Christian Leitenberger.
The Pioneers tied the game in the fifth.
Jake Newton (Lancaster/Bloom Carroll) led off with a double down the right field line.
Doug Bennett (New Castle, Pa./Shenango) laid down the sac bunt moving Newton to third and then
Christian Demko (Xenia/Bellbrook) knocked him in with a sac fly to right.
Marietta skipper
Brian Brewer sent freshman
Corey Whaley (Cuyahoga Falls/St. Vincent-St. Mary) to the mound to start the tenth inning. Whaley delivered 4.0 innings of one-hit, shutout relief for the Pioneers.
Mitch McNabb (Grove City/Bishop Ready) (1-1) took over in the 14th and was tagged with the loss. McNabb gave up one run on three hits in 1.1 innings of work.
Muskingum pitcher Kyle Schmitgen, forced to hit because of various substitutions, lead off the 15th with a single through the right side of the infield. A wild pitch moved him into scoring position. Following a sac bunt from Dallas Allen, Matt Lynn sent a soft liner into shallow center scoring Schmitgen with the winning run.
Schmitgen (2-2) entered the game in the 12th inning taking over for Barker on the mound. Schmitgen worked 4.0 innings of perfect relief to get the win.
Newton had a pair of doubles for the Pioneers and
Ryan Hanahan (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland) finished 2-for-6.
In the nightcap, Marietta jumped on Muskie starter Dillon McDermott for four runs in the first inning knocking him out of the game.
Chris Winpigler (Frederick, Md./Tuscarora) delivered a two-run single, while
Eric White (North Royalton/North Royalton) and
Chris Petrucci (Farmington, W.Va./Notre Dame) each drove in one run.
That would be all the support
Tommy Crowl (Cincinnati/Summit Country Day) (4-1) would need. Crowl threw 8.0 innings and allowed one unearned run on just one Muskie hit. Senior
Mike Fulton (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills) pitched the ninth inning.
The Pioneers added one in the third and three more in the fourth inning for an 8-0 lead. Petrucci drove in his second run of the game with an RBI single in the third. Hanahan smacked a two-run triple in the fourth, while Winpigler scored Hanahan with a groundout.
Muskingum got on the board with an unearned run in the home half of the fourth. Leitenberger reached on an error and eventually came around to score on a sac fly from Allen.
McDermott (0-4) took the loss. He was charged with four runs on three hits in 0.2 innings of work. McDermott walked three and struck out one. Three other Muskies threw in relief.
Petrucci was the lone hitter for either team to record two hits in the game. He finished 2-for-3 with two RBI. Winpigler notched three RBI, while Hanahan drove in two.
Marietta plays a single nonconference game at No. 12 ranked Frostburg State University on Easter Sunday (April 5) at 3:00 p.m. 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.
