DELAWARE, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers did a lot of things right on Sunday at Ohio Wesleyan in the North Coast Athletic Conference West Division opener for both teams. However, when the dust had settled the visiting Tigers had nothing to show for their efforts after a pair of narrow defeats, by scores of 7-6 and 2-0.
The losses dropped Wittenberg to 6-8 on the season, the first time the Tigers have dropped below the .500 mark. More importantly, the Tigers are off to an 0-2 start in the tough NCAC West Division, with the date and time of the two postponed games at Ohio Wesleyan on Saturday yet to be determined.
In the opener, the Tigers had the advantage heading into the bottom of the seventh inning before disaster struck. Leading 6-3, Wittenberg allowed four runs on just two hits, a three-run homer that tied the game and then an RBI single to center field that drove home the winner. The stage was set for the big inning with a pair of walks, a hit-by-pitch and a throwing error on a pickoff attempt.
Prior to that, senior Tyler McClain (Springfield, Ohio/North) had been in command, allowing three runs on seven hits and no walks through the first six innings. He was backed offensively by a 3-for-3 game from sophomore Pat Williams (Plainfield, Ind./Plainfield), who scored two runs, and three runs batted in from junior Tyler Christello (Eaton, Ohio/Eaton). The Tigers did most of their damage in the fourth inning as they pushed five runs across the plate.
The nightcap was a very different story. Ohio Wesleyan's Xander Jones tossed a no-hitter at the Tigers, allowing just one walk in seven nearly flawless innings. The hard-luck loser for the Tigers was freshman Bobby Ciucki (Dublin, Ohio/Coffman), who allowed just four hits and three walks in five innings. He allowed two runs, however, before freshman Joel Assenheimer (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) finished things up with a scoreless sixth inning.
Neither team committed an error or had an extra-base hit in the game, which took just 1 hour and 28 minutes to play.