Oberlin, Ohio – On Wednesday afternoon, the Oberlin College baseball team fought through cold, wet, and damp rainy conditions to defeat the visiting Grove City College Wolverines 8-3.
 
It was an impressive performance in all three phases of the game as the Yeomen matched a season-high 13 hits, went error-free, and surrendered just six hits against a Grove City team that won 30 games a season ago and returned nine all-conference players.
 
One of those all-conference returners was Wolverines starting pitcher Evan Umland (2-1) who came into the game with a 2-0 record and a 1.13 ERA with 24 strikeouts and only one walk, but the Yeomen touched him up for eight hits and five runs (two earned) over five innings of work.
 
Oberlin starter Jay Aghanya made his season debut and was on a pitch count as he worked his way back from a slight injury but got through the front four innings in commanding fashion, allowing just one hit and one run to go along with two walks and two strikeouts.
 
Rookie Calvin Burkholder (1-0) would come on and toss four strong innings in relief, fanning four while scattering five hits and a run. Aden Ochstein would record the final three outs in the ninth.
 
Eight of the nine Yeomen hitters had at least one hit in the contest and red-hot rookie Brady Groves got the trend going by leading off the game with a single before coming around to score on Ethan Hurwitz's RBI single back up the box to stake the Yeomen to an early 1-0 lead.
 
After Grove City evened the score at 1-1 in the second, it would remain tied until the Yeomen broke the game open with a four-run fifth. Senior Harry Kaplan started the rally with an infield single and would later come in to score on a groundout by Hurwitz to put the Yeomen in front for good. Freshman Kyle Baxt would drive in Groves with a double to center and David Curtin would then drop in a bloop-single down the right field line that allowed Baxt to come home. The final run of the frame would come on a perfectly executed steal-and-stop first-and-third play that allowed Nik Mezzanotte to race in to make it a 5-1 Oberlin advantage.
 
A Markus Williams homer to lead off the seventh got the visitors back within three, but the Yeomen would answer back in the home half of the inning with a pair of their own as sophomore catcher Anton Shelton delivered a clutch two-out, two-run double to center score Baxt and Hurwitz. Oberlin's final run of the game would come on a sac fly by Mezzanotte in the eighth.
 
Baxt went 3-for-4 with an walk and RBI to lead the way offensively, while Groves, Hurwitz, Kaplan each finished with a pair of hits.
 
Oberlin moved to 5-2 with the win and is in the midst of its first four-game winning streak since the 2017 season.

The Yeomen will be back in action on Tuesday, March 12, when Muskingum University comes to town for a 3 p.m. matinee.