Series Stats (Two Games)
Meadville, PA – After suffering a tough 7-6 walk-off loss in game one, the Oberlin College baseball team showed their resiliency by bouncing back with a 5-4 win in game two to split its conferencing-opening doubleheader at Allegheny College on Wednesday afternoon.
A total of 12 different Yeomen combined for their 23 hits on the day with
Lawrence Hamilton leading the way by going 4-for-9 with a double, RBI, and a run scored. Rookie
Nick Nelson also drove in a run on a 3-for-6 effort to go along with two runs scored. Oberlin called upon 10 pitchers to hold the Gators to just a .268 (19-of-71) batting average.
Oberlin played from out in front in the nightcap, posting three runs over the first two innings.
Jacob Thompson, who earlier in the day was named National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Rookie of the Week for the second time this season, drove in the game's first run with a single to center.
Parker Goldstein also registered an RBI in the inning.
The second inning started with a single from senior tri-captain
Ian Dinsmore and he would go first-to-third on an opposite-field single down the left field line sophomore
Alexis Castillo. Oberlin would later take advantage of a Gators' error to stake senior southpaw starter
Zachary Steer to an early three-run lead.
After cruising through the first three innings unscathed, Steer would surrender a solo tally in the fourth.
The Yeomen increased their cushion out to 5-1, using three hits to plate a pair of runs in the sixth. Senior
Jack McGowan got the rally rolling with a double to the gap in left center and he would later score on a clutch two-out RBI single by Nelson. Nelson would swipe second to get himself into scoring position and it paid off as he raced home on Castillo's single to right, scoring what proved to be the final Oberlin run of the game.
The Gators scratched out a run in the home half of the sixth before ultimately chasing Steer with two runs in the seventh to make it just an one-run game with two innings left to play.
The Yeomen bullpen answered the call in getting the last seven outs of the game as
Jack Reiss got the final out of the seventh before
David Gaetano and
Kotaro Kajita tagged-teamed a clean eighth. In the ninth it was freshman
Ian Ashby who sat down the Gators in order to secure his third save of the year.
Steer (1-2) earned his first win of the season after he worked 6.2 innings that saw him sprinkle eight hits and four runs. His command was much better than his previous outings as he walked just one and fanned three on 86 pitches of work, 58 of which were strikes.
McGowan and Castillo each had two hits to lead Oberlin's 10-hit performance in the game.
In game one, Thompson worked himself out of a jam in the first and the Yeomen got on the board in the top of the second. Goldstein led off the inning with a single into left field and came around to score when Ashby executed the first and third play to allow Goldstein to score.
The Gators answered the Yeomen run with three of their own in the home half of the third. After a pair of zeros were posted in the fourth inning, the Yeomen would get a run back when Hamilton hit a clutch two-out double down the left field line to plate Nelson, who led off the inning with a single.
Allegheny once again answered with a run on a wild pitch by the Yeomen to go back up by two, but the Yeomen offense came alive in the seventh. Three consecutive singles off the bats of
Brendan Mapes,
Ben Reed and Hamilton loaded the bases with no outs. Goldstein answered the call, singling into left-center which scored Mapes and Reed to even the score at 4-4. Allegheny would walk the bases loaded, and
Andrew Sugarman worked a walk to stake Oberlin the lead which was followed by a wild pitch that made it a 6-4 Yeomen advantage.
The Gators would go onto score one in the seventh and Max Sessions RBI single in the eighth tied the game back up. After Nolan Thompson put Oberlin down in the order in the ninth, the Gators got a pair of runners on with one out and won the game when Keegan Phillips roped a single into left to walk off with the win.
Thompson would pick up the win for Allegheny, with Ashby being saddled with the loss. Thompson went 5.1 innings, allowing four runs (two earned), and five hits before
Adrian Abrahamowicz went to his bullpen.
At the plate, five Yeomen recorded multiple hits in the lid lifter with Hamilton and Goldstein leading the pack. Goldstein went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a walk, while Hamilton finished the game one 3-for-4 with an RBI double.
The Yeomen are now an even 8-8 on the year and 1-1 in the NCAC. They will have a quick turnaround as they step back out of conference to host John Carroll University tomorrow at 4 p.m. in a single nine inning game.
