Springfield, OH – The Oberlin College baseball team appeared to be well on its way for its first sweep of the season after winning game one 12-6 at Wittenberg but the Tigers rallied late in the nightcap to steal away an 8-6 victory over the Yeomen.
Vince Dolcemaschio was simply sensational in the lid-lifter, throwing a career-high eight innings, allowing just one run, while going walk free and sprinkling 10 hits along the way. The sophomore right-hander threw 63 strikes on just 92 pitches as he recorded 10 fly ball outs and nine on the ground.
He pitched with the lead for most of the game of as the Yeomen answered an early Tiger run with a six-run second inning. Junior catcher
John Schooner got the rally rolling with an RBI double to the gap in right center and he would later trot home on
Harry Kaplan's single back up the box to put Oberlin out in front for good. Freshman
Ryan Kaestle followed with a run-scoring single to right field. After an RBI groundout,
Max Anastasio belted a solo shot over the wall in left for his third round-tripper of the year.
Schooner, who went 3-for-4 in the game-one win, added a sac fly in the third to make it a 7-1 Yeomen advantage and he would later score on a wild pitch in the sixth.
A sac fly from Anastasio in the seventh sent
Jake Blozy across the dish and
Chris Wolfe would then come through with a clutch two-out opposite-field RBI single to score
Jake Freed and swell the Yeomen lead out to 10-1.
Oberlin would tack on two more in the top of the ninth as
Alex Vaughan and Wolfe delivered back-to-back two-out run-scoring singles. It was good that they did add the insurance tallies as the Tigers took advantage of a leaky Oberlin bullpen in the home-half of the ninth, scoring five runs on three hits and four walks.
The Yeomen had 15 of the game's 28 hits as Blozy (2), Anastasio (2), Vaughan (2), Wolfe, and Kaplan (2) joined Scooner with a multi-hit performance.
Oberlin led 6-2 going into the home half of the seventh of game two but it all unraveled there as the Tigers posted six runs in the inning to heist a sweep away from the Yeomen.
Alexander Norris, who leads the team in appearances this year, got the final out of the sixth and got the first out of the seventh before running into trouble. An RBI groundout cut the lead in half at 6-3 and went down as the second out of the inning, but the Yeomen couldn't find the final out they needed in the inning as a walk and an error set the stage for Parker Gryskevich's game-tying two-run single to chase Norris from the game.
Unfortunately,
Jacob Thompson couldn't be the stopper as he hit the first batter he faced before Chase Whisner put the Tigers in front for good with two-run single back up the box.
Oberlin picked up right where they left off to open game two as Blozy led off with a double and would score on a single to left center by Anastasio to stake
William Kennedy and the Yeomen to a 1-0 lead.
The Tigers would push a pair across against Kennedy in the second to take a brief 2-1 edge, but the Yeomen would reclaim the lead with a three-run fourth. Freed got the party going with a leadoff double and he quickly evened the count on a single by Schooner. An RBI fielder's choice by Kaestle and a perfectly executed first-and-third double steal put the Yeomen in the lead by a pair at 4-2.
Antastasio would cap the scoring for Oberlin in the fifth with his second long ball of the day, lifting a two-run shot to center but the Tigers wouldn't go away without a fight.
Kennedy worked 5.2 innings in the no-decision, allowing just two runs on six hits, three walks, and two hit batters to accompany a pair of punchouts.
The Yeomen are scheduled to travel to Wooster on Tuesday, but the current forecast may impact that. Be sure to check
goyeo.com for the latest information.
