AUBURNDALE, Fla. — Wittenberg's offense tallied impressive totals for a second straight day as the baseball team sent Pitt-Greensburg home empty handed with a pair of wins, including a 21-1 rout and a tighter 11-4 victory. The Tigers improved to 4-0 to start the season for the first time since 2008.
In 2008, Wittenberg opened their spring trip with wins over King's College, Muhlenberg (2) and Farmingdale, but had not matched the feat again until today.
The Tigers hit .479 as a team in putting 32 runs on the board over the course of 14 innings, led by five hits apiece for junior Grant Goodwin (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson)and junior Graham Wolff (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest). Wolff hit two doubles and registered three RBIs, while Goodwin posted one double and one RBI and leads the team in on-base percentage at .722.
Senior Matt Hampp (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) contined his torrid pace with a 4-for-8 day at the plate with six RBIs and a home run, bringing his two-day, four-game totals to 10-for-16 (.625), four extra-base hits and 10 RBIs. He also carries an on-base percentage of .611 and a team-best slugging mark of 1.063.
In the first game, Wittenberg jumped on top quickly with three-run innings in the first and second, followed by one run in the third and four in the fifth. The lineup batted around in the sixth while scoring eight runs, and the finishing touches came in the seventh with two.
Freshman Zac Wilson (Eaton, Ohio/Eaton) was 3-for-4 with four RBIs, three runs and a walk at the top of the order. Wolff drove in three runs from the three-hole, while Hampp went 3-for-5 with five RBIs and a home run as the clean-up hitter. Nine of the 10 hitters who had an at bat in the game drove in at least a run, and the same figure registered a base hit. Wilson and Freshman Brandon Reaman (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont) each notched a triple in the game.
Given a more-than-comfortable lead, junior Zach Finke (Maineville, Ohio/St. Xavier) cruised through seven innings to pick up the complete-game win, allowing just four hits, one run and two walks while striking out six.
Greensburg prevented a similar blowout in Game 2 but were saddled with the unfortunate circumstance of facing junior Kevin Tolle (Englewood, Ohio/Northmont), who in just five innings in a starting assignment on the mound fanned 14 opposing batters, an average of 2.8 strikeouts per inning. Tolle allowed five hits to score three runs, two earned, and walked two batters.
Wolff went 3-for-4 at the plate in the second contest and crossed the plate twice, and senior Tim Little (Broadview, Ill./Kenwood Academy) hit safely in all three at bats, adding a walk, two runs scored and two runs driven in. Reaman was 2-for-4 with three runs scored and two RBIs. Also finished with two runs driven in were sophomores David Moore (Tipp City, Ohio/Tippecanoe) and Matt Powell (Troy, Ohio/Troy).
The Tigers put their 4-0 record on the line tomorrow, March 6, with a nine-inning game against Beloit at Noon.