DELAWARE, Ohio — It was a good news/bad news scenario once the dust had settled on the Wittenberg baseball team's split at Ohio Wesleyan. The Tigers remained in the hunt for one of two North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) West Division spots in the conference tournament, but their margin for error continued to narrow.

Wittenberg won the opener of a four-game series at long-time NCAC nemesis Ohio Wesleyan by a 7-3 count but dropped the nightcap by an 11-1 margin. The results left Wittenberg with records of 19-16 overall and 5-9 in the NCAC West.

Ohio Wesleyan is now 19-14 overall and 7-7 in the NCAC West. The Battling Bishops can eliminate the Tigers from NCAC Tournament contention with one win in the doubleheader slated for a noon first pitch on Sunday, April 22. OWU will be keeping a close eye on the proceedings between Wabash and Denison as well, as those two teams also remain mathematically alive for playoff spots.

In the opener, the Tigers broke open a close game with four runs in the top of the seventh inning. That made a winner out of junior Kevin Tolle (Englewood, Ohio/Northmont), who allowed three earned runs on nine hits and four walks before giving way in the bottom of the seventh inning to senior Brad Prewitt (Westerville, Ohio/South), who earned his second save by recording one out.

Offensively, freshman Brandon Reaman (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont) led the way with three hits, two RBIs and a run scored. Junior Grant Goodwin (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson), freshman Zac Wilson (Eaton, Ohio/Eaton) and sophomoreBrandon Jordan (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) added two hits apiece.

In the second game, Tiger pitching yielded a whopping eight walks, hit a batter and uncorked a pair of wild pitches. Ohio Wesleyan capitalized, scoring runs in six of the eight innings played while also banging out 12 hits.

Wittenberg collected eight hits of its own, including two apiece from senior Matt Hampp (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson), Goodwin and junior Graham Wolff (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest).