Berea, KY - The Oberlin College baseball team mustered just five hits and three runs in their season opener on Friday, but it was much different story on a marathon Saturday as the Yeomen scored 45 runs in a doubleheader sweep of Berea College, winning 22-11 and 23-3 in a not-so-tidy eight hours.
The Yeomen pounded out 39 hits on the day as they jumped all over the Mountaineers and never looked back.
In the lid-lifter, Berea scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning but the Yeomen answered with three in the second and four in the third to claim a comfortable 7-2 advantage. Drew Packs headlined the second with an RBI triple and Max Cairo also notched his first-career RBI. Oberlin had five hits in the third with run-producing swings coming courtesy of Alex Vaughan, Packs, Cairo, and Jacob Thompson.
Oberlin led 8-3 going into the fifth but would break the game wide open, plating five runs on five hits and three errors to make it 13-3. Chris Wolfe delivered the big blow of the inning with a two-run home run for his first-career round-tripper.
Trailing 13-3, the Mountaineers didn't quit as they answered back with five runs of their own but Oberlin would scratch across single tallies in the sixth and seventh before adding a touchdown and an extra point with a 7-run ninth that featured a three-run triple from Wolfe, a two-run double from Vaughan and a run-scoring double from Cairo.
Seven different Yeomen had a hit in the game with six players having two or more. Vaughan and Cairo each had four hits and combined for seven RBIs, while Wolfe drove in five in the win.
In the nightcap the Yeomen picked up right where they left off, scoring seven runs in the first inning and they would go on to score in every frame of the seven-inning affair.
Yianni Gardner got the barrage going with a two-run double and Max Anastasio, Cairo, and Thompson also had run-producing hits in the first.
The lead swelled to 16-3 after four innings before the Yeomen tacked on seven more tallies for good measure.
Wolfe and first-year Jake Blozy split time in center field, combining to go 5-for-5 with five runs scored. Blozy also had a triple, double, and a run scored.
What was lost in the offensive onslaught was the work being done on the bump by Justin Fuls and William Kennedy. Fuls earned his first-career win as he tossed the front four innings, allowing three runs on just two hits and two walks while striking out five. Kennedy was simply dominating in relief, pitching perfectly over the final three innings and fanning six of the nine batters he faced to get the save.
The Yeomen will now head south for four games in Florida sun starting on Thursday afternoon against Fitchburg State.
