MARIETTA, Ohio — The No. 6 ranked Marietta College baseball team took two games from Muskingum University on Sunday (April 25) to complete a three-game sweep of the Muskies. The Pioneers won game one, 6-5 in 11 innings, and then routed the Muskies, 19-4 in seven innings, in game two.
Marietta improves to 21-3 overall and remains in first place in the Ohio Athletic Conference standings with a 19-2 conference record. Muskingum falls to 7-12-1 on the season and 7-10-1 in conference games.
Alex Page (Monroe, Ohio/Monroe) lifted a deep sacrifice flyball to center field in the bottom of the eleventh inning that allowed Mathew Busby to tag and score the winning run in the first game of the day.
Drew Wilkinson (Medina, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) got hit by a pitch to lead off the inning.
Jared Weiss (Uniontown, Ohio/Green) drew a walk moving Wilkinson into scoring position at second base. Pioneer head coach
Brian Brewer put Busby in to run for Wilkinson.
Turner Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) followed with a sac bunt moving Busby to third and Weiss to second. The Muskies intentionally walked
Damian Yenzi (Pittsburgh, Pa./North Hills) loading the bases for Page. Page ended the game with the sac fly.
Page got the Pioneers on the board in the first inning, Hill drew a one-out walk and, following a fly out from Yenzi, stole second base. Page lined a single through the right side of the infield scoring Hill from second base.
Wilkinson smacked an RBI triple in the second inning and then later scored on a wild pitch for a 3-0 Marietta lead.
After Muskingum cut the lead to one, 3-2, in the top of the third, Hill blasted his first career home run to lead off the bottom of the inning and extend the Pioneer lead to 4-2.
The Muskies scored single runs in the fifth, seventh and eighth innings to take a 5-4 lead. Marietta tied the game in the bottom of the eighth when Page was hit by a pitch and then advanced all the way to third base on a sac bunt from
Drew Holderbach (Fairfield, Ohio/Badin). Page scored on a wild pitch.
Sam Mathews (Fairfield, Ohio/Badin) (5-1) picked up the win in relief. He pitched the final 3.0 innings and allowed no runs on two hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
Nicklaus Brown (Kenton, Ohio/Benjamin Logan) started and threw 3.0 innings giving up two runs on five hits.
Dalton Wiggins (Mineral Wells, W.Va./Parkersburg South) and
Griffin Malick (Akron, Ohio/Ellet) threw in relief before turning the ball over to Mathews.
Brayden Bush (0-2) was tagged with the loss. Holden Martin started and went 6.1 innings allowing four runs on six hits. Clark Jennings pitched 1.2 innings and then Bush worked the final 2.2 innings. Bush gave up one run on one base hit.
Hill finished 2-for-3 with one RBI, two runs scored and three stolen bases. Page drove in two runs and Wilkinson had two hits, including a triple.
Game two was all Marietta. The Pioneers scored 19 runs on 21 base hits. An 11-run fourth inning blew the game wide open. Marietta sent 16 hitters to the plate collecting 11 hits in the 11-run fourth inning.
Dylan Albright (Huntsville, Ohio/Indian Lake) went 3-for-3 with a double, triple, two-run home run and five runs batted in. Wilkinson and
Logan Vietmeier (Pittsburgh, Pa./Montour) also had three hits in the game. Hill, Yenzi, Page and Holderbach had two hits apiece.
Five different pitchers toed the rubber for Marietta.
Trent Valentine (Byesville, Ohio/Cambridge) started and worked 2.0 shutout innings.
Kail Hill (Marietta, Ohio/Marietta) (1-0) earned the win, his first career victory, with 1.2 innings of work. Hill allowed two runs on two hits.
Erik Cover (0-1) started and took the loss for Muskingum. Cover was charged with six runs on seven hits. Four other Muskies pitched in the game.
The Etta Express travels to Westerville on Monday (May 3) for a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Otterbein University.
Fans can follow the Etta Express all year long at
pioneers.marietta.edu. You can also follow the Pioneers on Facebook at
facebook.com/MariettaCollege and @MariettaPioneer on Twitter and Instagram.
