Wilmington, Ohio – Led by two quality starts from third-year right-hander Calvin Burkholder and second-year right-hander Matthew Ruttkay, the Oberlin College baseball team took both games from the Wilmington Quakers. Oberlin took game one 4-1, before prevailing 7-3 in the nightcap.

In game one, the Yeomen got the offense rolling early. First-year center fielder Patrick Leonard drew a walk to lead off the game and moved to third on a sharp single through the right side by third-year right fielder Brady Groves. With third-year first baseman Kyle Baxt at the dish, Groves stole second and then came around to score on a ground ball single up the middle from Baxt to give Oberlin an early 2-0 advantage.

That was all the offense Oberlin's pitching staff needed in game one. Burkholder tossed five strong innings, only giving up three hits and one earned run while striking out a season-high seven Quakers to earn his first win of the season.

In the top of the second, the Yeomen added another run, all thanks to Leonard. The Stamford, Connecticut native ripped a triple into the right-center gap and came around to score on a wild pitch to make it a 3-0 game.

A few innings later, in the top half of the fifth, Baxt laced a run-scoring single through the left side to score Leonard from third.

In game one, Leonard scored three of the Yeomen's four runs.

In relief of Burkholder, the Yeomen turned to third-year right-hander Micah Rodriguez. The Simi Valley, CA native worked an efficient scoreless two innings, only allowing one hit and striking out three to earn his second save of the season.

In game two, the Quakers struck first. Jumping out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom half of the second.

Oberlin quickly responded in the top of the third. Groves lined an RBI-double into the left-center gap, scoring second-year middle infielder You-Fu Chen to knot the score at 1. 

The following inning, Chen knocked a two-RBI single through the left side to score first-year middle infielder Kyle Takahashi and first-year catcher Ari Segel to make it a 3-1 game. 

"I was just trying to do my job and give the bat to the top of the lineup," Chen said. "I didn't try to do too much; [I was] just trying to produce for my team."

Chen went 2-3 in game two with two big RBIs.

A few batters later, Groves broke the game open. He smacked a deep drive to left that bounced off the left fielder's glove, off the top of the wall and ricocheted over the fence – Jose Canseco-esque. It was Groves' second home run of the season.

"It was a big situation with two runners in scoring position, so I was just trying to get them in," Groves said when asked about his mindset going into the at-bat. "He hung me a curveball, and I was just trying to hit a hard line drive."

The Yeomen put up a five-spot in the top of the fourth to make it a 6-1 and give the pitching staff some cushion to work with.

"It was big to get an offensive breakthrough since it felt like we were in control of [both] games the whole day, even though the score only showed us up by a couple runs," Groves said regarding the five-run inning. "It felt great to really show how well we were playing."

With the added run support, Ruttkay was solid through his five innings of work. The Northbrook, IL native threw five innings of three-run ball to earn his second win of the season.

In the top of the sixth, Baxt added an insurance run with a line drive single to right, scoring Takahashi from third to make it a 7-3 game. 

In relief of Ruttkay, first-year left-hander Shane McKenna was lights out. The southpaw spun two scoreless innings and struck out three to secure the victory for the Yeomen.

With the doubleheader sweep, the Yeomen move to 5-6-1 as they approach their spring break trip in Florida.

The Yeomen are back in action tomorrow, Sunday, March 15 for the final game of their three-game set against Wilmington. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m.