LaGrange, GA – The Wittenberg Tiger baseball team slugged it out with D3baseball.com Top 25's No. 4 LaGrange University to opener up their Spring Break trip, defeating the Panthers, 10-9. With 11 hits and overcoming six errors on the afternoon, Wittenberg held LaGrange scoreless in four innings, including the bottom of the ninth.
The Tigers were the first to strike, taking a 1-0 lead after one inning, after Conor O'Malley reached on the fielder's choice and scoring James MacAuley. LaGrange retook the lead in the bottom of the second, scoring three runs.
Wittenberg responded in the top of the third with a sacrifice fly from O'Malley, cutting the Panther's lead, 3-2.
After LaGrange added a one more run to their tally in the bottom half of the third. The Tiger offense popped off with a four-run scoring rally. Michael Bronowski earned the bases loaded walk for the first Tiger run of the inning. Dylan Jackson slapped a two-RBI single to left center, putting Wittenberg back on top, 5-4. Matt Moore drove in the final run of the inning with a single through the left side, giving the Tiger's a 6-4 advantage.
Back-to-back one run innings by the Panthers brought the game back to even at 6-6 after six innings of action.
The Tiger's displayed great plate discipline, posting two runs in the seventh drawing back-to-back bases loaded walks in the seventh. Moore extended the Wittenberg advantage in the eighth with a single through the left side.
LaGrange responded with three runs in the bottom of the eighth to bring the game back to 9-9.
Luke Thomas doubled to center bringing home Maxwell Monachino for the 10th and eventual winning Tiger run in the top of the ninth.
After getting the final out of the eighth, Nick Cunningham posted the final three outs in the ninth to secure the victory for the Tigers. Cunningham allowed just one hit with two strikeouts. Michael Osmond took the ball to start the game for the Tigers. Osmond went four innings, five hits, and two strikeouts with no earned runs. Charlie Schafer allowed two hits in two innings of work with three strikeouts.
UP NEXT
Wittenberg will continue their Spring Break trip with a two-game series at Emory University on Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:00 PM. The Tigers will continue their trip at Ogelthorpe University for a three-game set on Friday and Saturday.