Greencastle, IN – The Oberlin College baseball team made the long trek to DePauw University only to fall to the Tigers two times by the scores of 7-3 and 16-10 on Sunday afternoon.
In game one,
Vince Dolcemaschio and Michael Vallone were locked up in an old-fashioned pitcher's duel through the front six innings until Dolcemaschio ran into some trouble in the seventh as the Tigers broke through for five runs in the frame.
Three straight singles to start the bottom of the seventh gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead and the Yeomen unfortunately couldn't limit the damage. A hit batter and back-to-back two-run singles ultimately chased Dolcemaschio from the game as the Tigers took five-run advantage.
The sophomore right hander from Los Angeles, California, had allowed just five hits prior to the seventh but he was tagged with five more in the rally as he was ultimately the tough-luck loser after allowing seven runs on 10 hits to go along with one walk, one hit batter, and four strike outs.
Vallone was dominant for the Tigers on the bump as he surrendered just three hits and two runs over eight innings of work. The southpaw racked up 10 punchouts to accompany his three hit batters and a walk.
The Yeomen struck first in in their initial at-bat as
Jacob Thompson belted a two-out double to push
Jake Freed to third before he scored on a wild pitch.
The Tigers evened the count in the third before Oberlin went back out on top in the fourth as
Ryan Kaestle came through in the clutch with his first-career hit, poking an RBI double to the gap in left center to score
Harry Kaplan. DePauw would answer with a solo homer in the home half of the inning to tie the game at 2-2.
Oberlin tried to rally in the ninth with the first two hitters reaching on a free pass.
Alex Vaughan would then score on a balk before the game ended on a bang-bang play at first that would have scored another run and brought the tying run to the plate.
It was a much different story in the nightcap as the two foes combined for 26 runs and 32 hits.
Chris Wolfe led the Yeomen with four hits while
Jake Blozy,
Max Anastasio, and Kaestle each had three hits in the loss that took 3:42 compared to game one that lasted just 2:18.
DePauw scored five runs over the first two innings and led 5-1 in the early going. Oberlin's first run of the game came off an RBI single from Kaplan in the second that plated Wolfe.
The Yeomen would take a 6-5 lead with a pair of runs in the fourth and three in the fifth, but the Tigers responded with nine runs in the bottom of the fifth to reclaim control of the game.
In the fourth, Vaughan recorded an RBI double to the gap in left center and Kaestle later followed with a run-scoring single to center. In the fifth, all of the Yeomen's damage came with two outs as Vaughan and
Max Cairo each had run-producing hits while Wolfe scored on a DePauw error.
Oberlin would score in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings but it wasn't enough to overcome the large hole that was dug in the nine-run fifth for the Tigers. A DePauw miscue allowed a run to score in the sixth and Anastasio had a two-run double in the seventh. The final Oberlin tally came on RBI single back up the box by Kaestle.
William Kennedy (0-3) worked the front four innings, allowing seven runs (six earned) on seven hits and five walks to go along with three strikeouts.
The Yeomen are back in action next Saturday at Wittenberg.
