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Box Score 2 WESTERVILLE, Ohio — No. 25 Marietta College split an Ohio Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader at Otterbein University Saturday (May 5) afternoon at Fishbaugh Field.
The Pioneers snapped Otterbein's 11-game OAC winning streak with a 5-1 win in game one. The Cardinals captured the OAC Regular Season crown with a 14-1 victory in the nightcap.
Otterbein improves to 28-11 overall and earned the No. 1 seed and right to host next week's OAC Tournament with a 14-4 conference record. Marietta is 26-12 overall and 12-6 in the OAC. The Pioneers will be the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.
The final two slots in the OAC Tournament will be decided on Sunday when Baldwin Wallace and John Carroll play their final conference games. Currently, Heidelberg and Ohio Northern are tied for third in the OAC standings with 11-7 conference records. Baldwin Wallace is 9-7 and can cause a three-way tie for those final two tournament seeds with a sweep of John Carroll.
Senior
David Stover (Pittsburgh, Pa./Thomas Jefferson) (10-2) pitched a complete game in the opener to get his league-leading tenth win of the season. Stover allowed one run on 11 hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Marietta struck for two runs in the first inning and led the game from start to finish.
Geoff Snyder (Norton, Ohio/Norton) led off with a double down the right field line.
Chris Petrucci (Farmington, W.Va./Notre Dame) followed with an RBI single up the middle. Petrucci then stole second and third and then scored on a ground out from
Mike Hale (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont).
Stover sailed through the first two innings retiring the first six Cardinals he faced, including four by strikeout. Otterbein threatened in the third inning loading the bases with no outs. Stover kept his composure and got the next two hitters out on infield pop ups and then got out of the inning with a fly ball to left field.
Otterbein cut the Pioneer lead in half with a squeeze bunt in the fifth inning. Mitch Stotler led off with a single and then Ben Beachy doubled moving Stotler to third. Tyler Thompson drove in Stotler with the squeeze bunt.
The Pioneers answered right back with two runs in the top of the sixth.
Damian Yenzi (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) got the rally started with a one-out double into the right-center gap.
Zack Ward (Mt. Orab, Ohio/Williamsburg) singled shallow right-center scoring Yenzi. Ward stole second and then went to third on a single by
Trent Castle (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington).
Brady Cottom (Matthews, N.C./Butler) followed with a single to right scoring Ward.
Marietta's final run of the game came in the top of the ninth when Petrucci led off with a solo home run over the leftfield fence. It was his first home run of the season and second of his career.
Stevie Yuran (3-3) started on the mound for Otterbein and took the loss. He threw 7.2 innings and allowed four runs on nine hits. Yuran walked three and struck out six. John Kopicky worked the final 1.1 innings and gave up one run on two hits and struck out two.
Snyder, Petrucci, Yenzi and
Seamus Kenneally (Lebanon, Ohio/Lebanon) each had two hits in the game for the Pioneers.
The Cardinals pounded out 14 runs on 15 hits in the second game.
Scott Oberhelman (Washington Twp., N.J./Old Tappan) (4-3) started and took the loss. He threw 1.1 innings and allowed five runs, three earned on six hits.
Ian Luttrell (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park River Forest) pitched 4.1 innings and gave up five runs, one earned.
Kordell Antill (Woodsfield, Ohio/Monroe Central),
Easton Berry (Ripley, W.Va./Ripley) and
Jacob Baker (Hamilton, Ohio/Hamilton) all threw in relief.
Johnny Putnam (4-1) started and got the win for Otterbein. Putnam pitched 7.0 innings and allowed one run on six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts. Collin Hoffman worked 2.0 innings of shutout relief.
Marietta wraps up the regular season with a nonconference doubleheader at No. 17 La Roche College on Monday (May 7) at 1 p.m.
Fans can follow the Etta Express year around at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
