SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The Wittenberg baseball team split a doubleheader with Ohio Wesleyan Sunday in dramatic fashion, taking a 4-4 tie into the 10th inning of Game 2 where senior Tyler James (Coldwater, Ohio/Coldwater) belted a game-winning solo home run into right field to give the Tigers' their 18th 20-win season in program history.
The split came on a 5-2 loss in Game 1 and a 5-4 win in Game 2. This season marks the eighth 20-win campaign for Head Coach Jay Lewis, who just two weeks ago earned his 300th career coaching victory.
The Tigers improved to 20-16 with the split, but more importantly kept themselves square in the race for the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) title. Wittenberg moved to 9-5 in the league while the Battling Bishops, also vying for the title, moved to 11-5 and 21-13 overall.
Wooster sits at 9-4 with three conference games remaining on their schedule, while Wabash is 9-5 with a doubleheader yet against Kenyon. NCAC policies allow teams with a minimum of 12 completed conference games to qualify for the tournament, and even in the event weather cancels the remaining games, none of the league's nine teams are at risk of elimination.
NCAC tournament berths are awarded to the four highest ranked teams based on winning percentage. The double-elimination tournament is scheduled to begin Thursday, April 28, at V.A. Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio.
Two NCAC games remain for the Tigers with a doubleheader scheduled for 1 p.m. tomorrow, Monday, April 25, at Fishel Field in Hiram, Ohio. As it stands, Wooster sits in first place (9-4, .692) and Ohio Wesleyan (11-5, .687) occupies second, followed by Wittenberg and Wabash tied for third at 9-5 (.643).
Leading up to James' solo shot to win Game 2, the Tigers rallied from a 4-1 deficit with a three-run fifth to knot the contest at 4-all. After several relievers combined to hold Ohio Wesleyan at bay in the sixth, junior Matt Rupert (Evanston, Ill./Evanston) took over with one away in the seventh and pitched 3 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, finishing the game to take home his third win of the season.
Senior Zach Spring (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy Liberty) kickstarted the fifth-inning rally with a leadoff double, then scored on a sacrifice fly by senior Ben Gurney (Indianapolis, Ind./North Central). Senior Ray Noe (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome) brought home a run on a single and came around himself thanks to a single by junior Matt Hampp (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson).
The box score will not reveal it, but in the first inning, Hampp scored the Tigers' first run on what amounts to a very unconventional home run. After reaching on a fielding error at third and taking third base on the resultant throwing error to first, Hampp spotted an undefended home plate and took off. He barely beat a tag by the diving third baseman in a foot race to the plate.
In the Game 1 loss, Wittenberg led 1-0 through three frames, but the Bishops pushed across three in the fourth and added two in the seventh to counter the Tigers' one fourth-inning run.
Noe, Spring and sophomore Graham Wollf (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) each registered two hits in the game, while sophomore Grant Goodwin (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) went 1-for-3 with the lineup's one RBI.
On the day, Spring, Hampp, Wolff and Noe all logged three hits.
John Strawn '07