Davenport, Florida – The Oberlin College baseball team opened their spring break trip with a pair of seven-inning victories over Lawrence on Sunday afternoon. Daniel Krabill led the charge in game two, with three-run homerun to give the Yeomen the 11-8 win. Oberlin won game on 7-6, notching five-straight wins and moving their overall record to 8-6-1.
 
"It's great to see our team putting it together consistently to get this win streak going." Head Coach Johnathan Ray added, "We just need to keep playing together and doing the little things well."
 
On the mound for game one, Calvin Burkholder led Oberlin through 5.1 innings, collecting four strikeouts and giving up five runs. Davis Hayes came in for a quick relief before Micah Rodriguez closed out the game in the final inning to collect his third save of the year.
 
In the batter's box, Sam Labrecque led the team with three hits and two RBIs, hitting a pair of doubles and a triple. Daniel Devapalan knocked a double and a triple as well, followed by Brady Groves with a triple.  
 
Scoring early after Labrecque doubled down the left line, Kyle Baxt put Oberlin up 1-0 after the first inning. The Yeomen slowly build their advantage with another run in the third, again from Labrecque doubling into center field for Groves to come home. Oberlin's bat broke open in the fourth inning after Robbie Lynn hit an RBI single, followed by Anton Shelton's sacrifice bunt. Lynn's quick feet advanced him to third on a passed ball, then brought him to home plate on a wild pitch, giving Oberlin a 5-1 lead.
 
The Vikings finally found their groove at the top of the sixth, when they scored four runs to bring the game within one. Rookie Patrick Leonard doubled to center in the bottom half of the frame to put the home team back up by two. Top of the seventh with two out, runners on first and second, Rodriguez delivered the fastball that fell into Baxt's glove to clinch the win.
 
Pitching for the Yeomen in game two, Matthew Ruttkay led the team with 3.2 innings, throwing 80 pitches across 22 batters. Lachlan Nichol relieved the sophomore to close the fourth inning, before James Min threw a fantastic fifth inning to put Oberlin back in the lead. Shane McKenna completed the victory with a pair of strikeouts and earned his first career save.
 
Starting the game with momentum from the early victory, Labrecque's sacrifice fly gave Oberlin the first inning lead. Thereafter the Yeomen struggled to regain their footing on the offense, giving up three runs in the bottom of the third. With Ari Siegel on base, Leonard singled to right field to being a three-run inning. Following Leonard, Groves knocked a line drive home run out of left field, notching his third homerun of the season.
 
After Lawrence added four more to take a 7-4 lead, the Crimson and Gold laid down the iron and dished out seven runs in the sixth inning. RBIs from Groves and Labrecque featured runs from Kyle Takahashi, Leonard, and Groves. Delivering the final blow, Krabill connected with a fastball and launched it over the right field fence. Scoring Bax and Labrecque, the Yeomen took a 10-7 lead. Not finished with the inning, Nik Mezzanote pinched for the next batter and hit a massive triple to the left. The Florida native scored on the next pitch, a wild pitch, and capped the team's biggest inning of the year.
 
With little left in the tank, Lawrence was unable to mount a comeback in their next two outtings, and the Yeomen completed the Viking sweep and finish their first day of Florida baseball 2-0.
 
With his pair of hits today, Baxt moves to tie fifth all-time in career hits with 154. The junior ties Justin Cruz '17 and sits 27 hits behind fourth overall, Ben Puterbaugh '11 with 181 hits.
 
Oberlin returns to action tomorrow, March 23, with a single game against Hamilton at 2:30 p.m.
 
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