Oberlin, Ohio - The Oberlin College baseball team surrendered a pair of runs late in game one to lose 3-2 but bounced back with a 4-3 win in game two to earn a season-opening split against the Ohio Northern University Polar Bears on Sunday afternoon at Dill Field.
In the game-two win, Oberlin was led by a pair of Max's as
Max Anastasio went 2-for-4 with two RBIs while
Max Wassarman was simply sensational out of the Yeomen bullpen for 4.2 innings.
Anastasio plated the game's first run in the home-half of the first inning as he sent a single back up the box to score
Jake Blozy.
A costly Oberlin error led to ONU tying the game at 1-1 in the third but the Yeomen would go right back in front in the bottom part of the inning. Blozy started things off with his 50th-career hit and would move into scoring position on a wild pitch. Anastasio would deliver once again with his 50th-career hit as well, poking one into left center to score Blozy for the second time.
The Polar Bears found a way to even the count at 2-2 in the fourth as a critical passed ball allowed Jacob Wenning to score on Vinny Scalafani's double.
Oberlin starting pitcher
Jay Aghanya would depart after the fourth inning, giving up just four hits, one walk and one hit batter while striking out three over 63 pitches of work. Both of the runs scored against him were unearned.
Wassarman came on in the fifth and after striking out the first batter he faced, back-to-back Oberlin miscues allowed ONU to take a 3-2 lead. However, Wassarman would settle in from there and keep the Polar Bears off the board the rest of the way.
The Yeomen would go back out in front in the bottom of the seventh, plating a pair on three hits and a sac fly. Back-to-back singles by
Chris Wolfe and
John Schooner set the table for the rally and
Harry Kaplan followed with a key sacrifice bunt before Blozy tied it with a single to right. The go-ahead run would then come courtesy of
Yianni Gardner as he lifted a fly ball to medium-deep left field that allowed
John Schooner to trot home from third.
After sitting down the Polar Bears in order in the sixth, Wasserman worked around a two-out double in the seventh and a one-out single in the eighth. The sophomore from Winchester, Massachusetts, would then get two quick outs in the ninth but back-to-back singles put two runners in scoring position and forced Wassarman from the game. Thankfully, all
Luigi Smarro needed to lock down his first-career save was one pitch as Corey McMann fouled out to end the game.
Wassarman earned his first-collegiate win as he struck out four, walked one, and allowed just four hits and one unearned run.
In game one, the Yeomen were clinging to a 2-1 lead all the way until the eighth inning as Yeomen ace
Vince Dolcemaschio was simply sensational for eight innings, retiring the first 12 batters he faced until an infield single led off the fifth.
A two-out opposite-field single to right field by
Max Cairo in the first inning gave Oberlin an early 1-0 cushion and it would stay that way until the fifth.
Doclemaschio would give up back-to-back singles to start the fifth and Andrew Stechschulte would ultimately make him pay with a two-out hit single back up the middle to plate Nate Webb and level the score at 1-1.
Oberlin would go right back in front in the bottom of the inning as Kaplan sent a bouncing ball back up the middle that allowed
Ethan Hurwitz to score on the play.
Oberlin had runners on base in each of the sixth and seventh innings but came up empty in its efforts to add some insurance runs and that ultimately proved costly in the end. In the eighth inning, pinch hitter Chase Armstrong came off the bench and roped a two-out two-run single into right field to give ONU the lead.
The Yeomen would go down quietly in the eighth and the ninth to allow the Polar Bears to pull off the comeback heist.
Dolcemaschio was the tough-luck loser after allowing six hits and three runs over 76 pitches in eight innings. He did not surrender a walk and struck out two along the way. The Los Angeles, California, native faced 29 batters and recorded 17 ground ball outs.
Oberlin had just six in the game with Blozy leading the way with a pair of infield singles.
Oberlin and Ohio Northern are scheduled to play once more next weekend but that may change depending on the weather. As always stay tuned to goyeo.com for the latest information.
