SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wilmington Quakers and Wittenberg Tigers battled to a 15-15 standoff in the all-important hits category Tuesday night at Carleton Davidson Stadium. Problem for Wittenberg is, the hits category isn't the one that determines the eventual winner - it's the runs category and Wilmington finished with a decisive 16-8 edge there.
The loss was just Wittenberg's third in the last 12 games as the Tigers fell to 18-14 overall. The Tigers have one final tune-up - at Defiance on Thursday - for a critical weekend of North Coast Athletic Conference West Division games against Ohio Wesleyan and Denison. The Quakers are now 15-12.
Wilmington took a 5-1 lead in the second inning and slowly expanded the advantage, scoring at least one run in five straight innings between the fourth and eighth. Seven different Wittenberg pitchers took to the hill, with only sophomoreTravis Kniffin (Newark, Ohio/Licking Valley) escaping without allowing a run.
Offensively, the Tigers picked up a 3-for-3 hitting performance from senior Andrew Wellman (Huntington, W.Va./Huntington) and a 2-for-2 outing from freshman Josh Bunnell (Cleves, Ohio/Harrison). A total of 15 different players had at least one plate appearance in the game for Wittenberg.
The primary reasons that the runs column didn't match the hits column were errors and walks. The Tigers committed five errors, leading to six unearned runs, compared to three for Wilmington, and Wittenberg pitchers yielded six walks in the game, compared to just two for the Quakers.