Wittenberg Rallies For Win Over Muskingum

NEW CONCORD, Ohio - How things change in just a week's time. The Wittenberg Tigers were a struggling outfit after losing three of four home games to Thomas More on April 9-10, but that seems like a long time ago. On Tuesday, the Tigers won their seventh straight game, taking to the road for the first time in two weeks and pulling out a 10-9 extra-inning victory over Muskingum.

The win improved the Tigers to 20-13 overall, while Muskingum dropped to 16-13.

The game was a see-saw affair throughout, with both teams holding multiple leads. With Muskingum leading 9-8 in the ninth inning, the Tigers rallied on a two-out single by senior Tom Pickering, which drove in sophomore Andrew Wellman, who had led off with a walk. Then the Tigers won it with a run in the top of the 10th inning as junior Justin McCulla led off with a single and scored on a error.

The Tigers' Tyler Curlis started and was roughed up for five earned runs in 2.2 innings, followed by freshman Eric Hartfelder, who allowed four earned runs in four innings. Most importantly, however, is the fact that neither pitcher allowed the Muskies to put together a back-breaking rally. That set the table for McCulla, who was outstanding with 3.1 innings of scoreless relief. He picked up his second victory of the 2005 season.

Wittenberg was without the services of standout freshman outfielder Jon Fox, who was injured in a collision near the end of Sunday's Game 2 win over Earlham. Plenty of players picked up the slack, starting once again with the red-hot Wellman, the NCAC Player of the Week. He went 4-for-5 with two doubles, three runs scored and two runs batted in to raise his average to a spectacular .578 on the season. Junior Brian Hampp clubbed his first home run of the season and Pickering knocked in a pair of runs with two clutch singles.