Springfield, Ohio – The Oberlin College baseball team had a tough day in Southern Ohio, dropping a doubleheader to the Wittenberg University Tigers by the scores of 10-3 and 14-1 (7 inn.) on Saturday afternoon.
The Tigers touched up Oberlin senior right-hander
Andrew Shen for eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits and a walk over just 3.1 innings of work as he left with the Yeomen facing a large deficit in game one.
Oberlin trailed 5-0 after three innings but would get on the board by posting a pair of runs in the top part of the fourth on
David Curtin's two-run double that scored
Kyle Baxt and
Anton Shelton after they got aboard via a single and a double, respectively.
Unfortunately, the Yeomen momentum was short-lived as the Tigers answered back with three runs of their own in the home half of the inning to chase Shen from the game while ballooning the score out to 8-2.
Oberlin would get a single tally back in the fifth as senior second baseman
Joe Strabley led off with a double and would later score on a sacrifice fly courtesy of
Brady Groves. The Yeomen would threaten again in the sixth, loading the bases with two outs, but were unable to push anything across.
The Tigers, who had 14 hits in the game, tacked on two more runs in the seventh to leave little doubt in the eventual outcome.
Oberlin finished with nine hits with Baxt (3), Curtin (2), and Strabley (2) combining for seven of them. For Baxt, the performance marked his second straight three-hit game and the seventh time this year he has three or more hits in a game.
The Yeomen threatened in each of the first two innings of game two but had just one run to show for it after some questionable base-running decisions, resulting in their lone tally coming across on a Tigers' error.
Rookie right-hander
Davis Hayes made his first career start but couldn't survive the fourth inning, departing after just 3.1 innings after he was tagged for six earned runs on five hits and three walks to go along with two strikeouts.
The Tigers led 2-1 after three innings but took control of the game with a five-run fourth, before adding on seven more in the sixth off the Oberlin bullpen to invoke the 10-run mercy rule.
Oberlin had seven hits in the loss with Baxt's first-inning double being the lone extra-base hit for the Yeomen.
The Yeomen have dropped seven in a row, falling back to 11-16 overall and 1-7 in the NCAC.
The Yeomen's Sunday game at Muskingum has been postponed with the team now slated to be back in action on Wednesday at Kenyon College. First pitch of the twinbill is set for noon.
