MARIETTA, Ohio — Marietta College won its home opener with a dominating 11-0 shutout victory over Johnson & Wales University Thursday (Mar. 14) afternoon at Pioneer Park. The Etta Express improves to 6-7 on the season. Johnson & Wales move to 5-3 overall.
Three Pioneer pitchers combined to strikeout 14 Wildcats.
Trent Valentine (Byesville, Ohio/Cambridge) (2-0) started and threw 5.0 innings. He scattered four hits, walked two and struck out seven.
Forrest Havanis (Washington, Pa./Trinity) had five strikeouts in 3.0 innings, while
Zach Marzetz (Blacklick, Ohio/Gahanna Lincoln) struck out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth.
Marietta grabbed the lead in the bottom of the first.
Cael Magill (Atco, N.J./King's Christian) led off with a walk and moved to second on a single up the middle from
Alex Richter (Carmel, Ind./Carmel). Magill moved over to third on a groundout and scored on a sac fly from
Cooper Fiehrer (Hamilton, Ohio/Badin).
The top of the Pioneer batting order got things going again in the third, Magill singled and Richter doubled to the wall in left center scoring Magill.
Ben Kaplin (Louisville, Ky./Ballard) hit a sharp ground ball that clipped Richter on the foot. Richter was called out on the play and Kaplin was credited with a single.
Kaplin quickly stole second base and moved to third on a single from Fiehrer.
Cole Rieman (West Chester, Ohio/Archbishop Moeller) followed with a single to right driving in Kaplin and moving Fiehrer to second. A Wildcat fielding error allowed Fiehrer to score for a 4-0 Pioneer lead.
Nick Kumor (Uniontown, Pa./Laurel Highlands) drove in a run with a groundout in the fifth.
Cole Yeager (Pittsburgh, Pa./Penn Hills) made it 6-0 with an RBI triple later in the inning.
Marietta put the game out of reach with five more runs in the seventh.
Nick Bonnizzio (Hudson, Ohio/Twinsburg) plated the first run on a ground ball in the infield. Yeager lined a two-run double to right and then scored on an RBI single from
Jeremy Tonelli (Twinsburg, Ohio/Twinsburg). The final run of the inning scored on an error.
Rieman led the Pioneer offense with four hits. Richter finished 3-for-4 with a double. Magill, Fiehrer and Yeager each had two hits in the game. Yeager had a double, a triple and drove in three runs, while Fiehrer scored three times.
Marietta plays Eastern Connecticut State University on Saturday (Mar. 16) at noon.
Fans can follow all 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 X and Instagram.
