Berea, OH – The Oberlin College baseball team opened its season by dropping both ends of a doubleheader at Baldwin Wallace University. The Yeomen fell 14-1 in game one and finished on the wrong end of a 13-1 score in game two.
The Yellow Jackets roughed up Yeomen pitching for 28 hits and took advantage of four errors to post 27 runs in the sweep as they moved to 4-0 on the year, while Oberlin started its 2018 campaign at 0-2.
In game one, Yeomen starter
Sean Kiley lasted just 3.1 innings as he was touched up for seven runs (six earned) on eight hits and a walk. However, Yeomen relievers
Nicholas Morgan,
Zachary Steer,
Musa Matiwane, and
Nick Dawkins all made scoreless appearances as they combined for 2.1 innings of work.
BW ace Evan Lovick was sharp as he sprinkled five hits and five strikeouts over five scoreless innings to earn his second win of the season. Max Adams and Nick Smith finished off the final four innings, allowing just one hit and one unearned run along the way.
The Yellow Jackets plated the game's first runs in the bottom of the third inning. After Kiley retired the first two hitters in the frame, Chase Knodle dropped in a single to center. Trent Kaltenbach then went first-pitch swinging as he belted a two-run home run over the wall in left. The next two BW hitters would also reach, but Kiley struck out Jacob Bonner on just three pitches to limit the damage.
Unfortunately, the Yellow Jackets would break the game open with a five-run fourth as they used three hits and two critical Oberlin errors to take a 7-0 lead. The big blow came courtesy of Knodle as he delivered a two-run double to center in the rally. BW would go on to add four runs in the fifth, two in the seventh, and one in the eighth to complete the scoring.
Oberlin's lone run of the game came in the seventh as
Maxx McGee had a two-out single and would later score on an error in center field on a ball that came off the bat of
Amari Newman.
Quin Butler had two of the Yeomen's six hits as he went 2-for-4 with a double.
Oberlin didn't fare much better in the nightcap as the Yellow Jackets erupted for seven runs in the second inning off of southpaw starter
David Gaetano who lasted just 1.1 innings. BW used four hits and two errors in the frame with a dagger coming in the form of a three-run home run by Dudley Taw.
Oberlin scratched a run across in the fourth as Butler reached on an error and would come around to score on a groundout by freshman
Alexis Castillo.
The Yeomen threatened in the top of the seventh, loading the bases with two outs as
Derek Martin and
Jack McGowan delivered back-to-back singles and Newman followed with a walk. However, BW relief pitcher Jack Raines was able to induce a strikeout to escape unscathed. The Yellow Jackets would go on to post three runs in the seventh and eighth innings to leave no doubt in the final outcome.
Noah Gear and
Milo Sklar were bright spots out of the Yeomen bullpen. Gear did not surrender a hit over 1.2 innings, why Sklar kept the high-powered Yellow Jackets contained to just two hits over three scoreless innings.
Martin led the Yeomen with two hits in the setback.
Oberlin will be back in action on March 3 when it travels to Grand Park in Westfield, Indiana, to take on Calvin College (MI). First pitch of game one is set for 12 p.m.
