WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — After dropping their first two games of the season, the Wittenberg baseball team has rattled off six straight wins, including two on Friday over New Jersey City University. The Tigers won by scores of 3-2 and 7-3, again relying on solid pitching and timely offense to push to 6-2 overall.
The winning streak represents the Tigers' longest since a string of eight victories that began with a 7-0 win against Wabash on April 6, 2007, survived two cancelled games, and finished with a 12-3 win over Kenyon on April 21, 2007.
Wittenberg plays the last of their Russ Matt Invitational doubleheaders tomorrow, Saturday, March 12, against Anna Maria College beginning at 9 a.m. at the Chain of Lakes Complex, the former Spring Training home of Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians, in Winter Haven.
In the early game, the Tigers emerged 3-2 winners thanks to a six-inning start by sophomore lefty Jonathan Long (Hilliard, Ohio/Darby). The Gothic Knights tallied just six hits and two runs off of Long. He ran into some trouble in the sixth inning but worked himself out of a jam to limit damage in the inning to one run.
A three-up, three-down save came courtesy junior Matt Rupert (Evanston, Ill./Evanston), fresh off a superb 3-1/3 inning relief win over Waynesburg on Tuesday in which he tossed eight strikeouts while facing just 11 batters.
The Tigers took a three-run lead after one run in the first and two in the second. In the first, junior Andy Payton (Springfield, Ohio/North) singled to score senior Mike Yednock (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington). In the second, senior Zach Spring (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) scored on a muffed throw, and Yednock later knocked in freshman David Moore (Tipp City, Ohio/Tippecanoe). Payton finished the game 2-for-3, as did sophomore Graham Wolff (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest).
In the late game, Noe posted a 4-for-5 outing and the Tigers' first home run of the season, scoring three total runs with one RBI to pace the Wittenberg offense. Yednock and Spring each drove in a pair of runs, and sophomore Grant Goodwin (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) also plated one run.
As a team, the Tigers hit safely 16 times in the game. Five individuals each tallied two hits, including Spring (2-4), Wolff (2-3), junior Matt Hampp (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson), sophomore Nick Van Dyne (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) and senior Ben Gurney (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central).
Sophomore Kevin Tolle (Englewood, Ohio/Northmont) earned his first win of the season in six innings, allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Junior Ted Skalla (Winnetka, Ill./New Trier) turned in one inning of scoreless relief with one strikeout, one hit and one walk to close the game.
John Strawn '07