SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg Tigers kicked off the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) portion of their 2011 schedule with a doubleheader sweep of visiting Allegheny. The wins, by scores of 9-5 and 5-2, came in the first meeting between the two programs in more than a decade after the conference moved away from a divisional format before the season.
More importantly, the wins pushed the Tigers to 11-7 overall as the season nears the halfway point with a key road trip to Wabash looming on Sunday. The Gators, who like Wittenberg had picked up a win over a nationally ranked opponent in the last week, dropped to 7-6.
In the opener, Wittenberg fell behind 5-0 before scoring nine unanswered runs in their final three at-bats to claim the victory. The offensive outburst made a winner out of sophomore Jonathan Long (Hilliard, Ohio/Darby), who went the first five innings before giving way to juniors Ted Skalla (Winnetka, Ill./New Trier) and Matt Rupert (Evanston, Ill./Evanston). Skalla got into a jam thanks to an error in the sixth inning, but Rupert slammed the door with a strikeout to end that threat. Then he worked through another error in the seventh inning to notch his third save of the campaign.
In the nightcap, sophomore Zach Finke (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) also got the win after going the first five innings. He was relieved by senior Jim Clement (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young), who tossed a scoreless sixth, and Rupert, who loaded the bases before finishing off the Gators and picking up his fourth save, including three in a row (including one against Heidelberg earlier in the week).
Offensively, senior Zach Spring (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) provided a big spark, collecting four hits in five official plate appearances over the two games. He scored two runs and drove in three. Sophomore Graham Wolff (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) added four hits of his own on the day, and senior Ray Noe (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome) banged out three hits, including a clutch two-run double to cap the decisive six-run fifth inning in Game 1.