Bryan Burke

Lance Dill

The Tiger baseball team came very close to winning an outright North Coast Athletic Conference West Division title. As tantalizing as it was, however, Wittenberg was beaten twice on Sunday by 12th-ranked Ohio Wesleyan to fall into a first-place tie with the Bishops and wind up with the No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAC Tournament.

Last week was an incredibly busy one for the Tigers as they played six NCAC West games, winning the first four to clinch a share of the title. But on Sunday, Wittenberg and OWU resumed a game suspended from Saturday due to rain and the Bishops scored four unearned runs in the top of the eighth inning to claim an 11-7 victory. In the final game of a three-game set, OWU quickly grabbed a 10-1 lead and coasted to a 15-5 victory.

It was certainly a case of wondering what might have been. The Tigers started things off last week by defeating Denison on Tuesday by a 23-5 count, wrapping up a rain-interrupted three-game sweep of the Big Red. Then came a rescheduled doubleheader against Wabash, also a result of rain earlier in the season, and another sweep, this time by scores of 9-4 and 4-0. The latter game was shortened to five innings due to rain.

In the win over Denison, almost every Wittenberg player jumped into the offensive fray. Senior centerfielder Lance Dill (Bellville, Ohio/Clear Fork) had four hits and four runs, senior shortstop Bryan Burke (Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick) collected five hits, scored three runs and drove in three, junior first baseman Ryan Born (Marion, Ohio/Pleasant) went 4-for-4 with four runs and four RBI and junior designated hitter Trent West (Cincinnati, Ohio/Purcell Marian) finished with three hits and five RBI.

Against Wabash, Burke continued his torrid pace, finishing 4-for-4 with two runs and four RBI in Game 1. In the nightcap, Born and Burke each had two hits, with Born driving in three runs. On the mount, senior pitcher Nick Allen (Vandalia, Ohio/Butler) tossed his best game of the year, going all five innings and yielding just four hits and no walks.

Combined with an earlier sweep of Earlham, the Tigers headed into a three-game homestand against the Bishops brimming with confidence and owners of a one-game advantage in the race for the regular season division crown. In the first game, the Tigers rallied from an early 4-1 deficit to score 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth and cruise to a 14-5 victory. But then came the aforementioned Sunday losses and the end result.

In the opener, freshman pitcher Ryan Goldschmidt (Ft. Loramie, Ohio/Ft. Loramie) pitched well enough for the win and freshman outfielder Matt Foster (Granville, Ohio/Granville) went 3-for-3 to spearhead an offensive attack in which five players had multi-hit games.

As disappointing as the losses were, the bright side is that the Tigers claimed their first NCAC title of any kind since 1996 and topped the 20-win plateau for the seventh time since 1994 and 14th time since 1986. It also qualified Wittenberg for the NCAC Tournament again, starting with a Saturday afternoon doubleheader at No. 1 ranked Wooster, the East Division champion, at 1 p.m.

In addition, Burke was named NCAC Player of the Week for his outstanding performance. He hit safely, scored at least one run and had at least one RBI in all six games last week, finishing 17-for-27 with 12 runs, 13 RBI and four home runs.