TIFFIN, Ohio — The Wittenberg baseball team fell to 8-8 overall with a midweek 11-1 loss at nationally-ranked Heidelberg Wednesday afternoon at Peaceful Valley Field.
The Tigers fell behind after Heidelberg, ranked second in the nation in the latest National College Baseball Writer's Association/D3baseball.com poll, scored one in the first and five in the second. The big second inning pushed out Wittenberg starter Matt Rupert (Evanston, Ill./Evanston)early, and he took the loss on seven hits that allowed six runs to score.
In relief, Ethan Sharpin (Springfield, Ohio/Kenton Ridge) pitched 1-2/3 innings and allowed just one hit, followed by five others, including Chris Green (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle), Brad Prewitt (Westerville, Ohio/South) and Darrin Mumaw (Fort Loramie, Ohio/Fort Loramie), who all kept Heidelberg off the board in one inning each.
Heidelberg, following the first two innings, picked up two more in the third and three in the seventh to complete the scoring.
As potent as the Heidelberg offense was, the pitching was even tougher. Starter Ethan Holt held the Tigers to two hits in his complete game effort, both doubles courtesy Wittenberg slugger Mike Yednock (Worthington, Ohio/Thomas Worthington), who finished the day 2-for-4 with an RBI.
Wittenberg lead-off man Nick Van Dyne (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) went 0-for-1 but scored on one of Yednock's doubles as part of a three-walk day.
The Tigers return home this weekend to play four games in the column that counts, the North Coast Athletic Conference West Division, as Denison comes to Carleton-Davidson Stadium for a Friday-Saturday engagement, April 2 and 3. Friday's first pitch is due at 2 p.m. and on Saturday the games begin at Noon.
Written by: John Strawn '07