CRAWORDSVILLE, Ind. – A strong start to a season means something. A strong start to the conference portion of a college baseball schedule means much more. Chalk one up for the latter as the Wittenberg Tigers opened a four-game series with North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) West Division rival Wabash with a sweep.
Wittenberg picked up wins by scores of 4-2 and 9-1 over the Little Giants to run its early season record to 10-1 overall. More importantly, the Tigers started off NCAC West play in the best possible way, with a pair of wins after posting a record of just 5-11 in the division a year ago.
Wabash fell to 6-9 overall and 0-2 in the league, heading into the final two games of the series on Saturday.
Wittenberg opened the series with a 4-2 victory behind another outstanding pitching performance from senior Zach Finke (Maineville, Ohio/St. Xavier), who allowed seven hits and three runs but held the Little Giants to just two runs (one earned). He struck out seven along the way, which repeatedly allowed him work his way out of trouble.
The offense banged out 10 hits, with three of them coming off the bat of senior Graham Wolff (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest). He started his day with an RBI single in the first inning, and he followed that up with the big hit in the decisive three-run fifth inning, a two-run double that was followed by an RBI single from senior Grant Goodwin (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson).
Five different Tigers pitched in the nine-inning nightcap, and the tag-team approach worked well as the Little Giants were limited to four hits – all singles. The win went to freshman Jordan Hitt (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern), who allowed just two hits and three walks in six strong innings as he improved to 3-0 on the young season.
Offensively, Wittenberg did all of its damage in the second and fourth innings thanks to a rare display of power. By game's end, junior Tyler Hutchinson (Lebanon, Ohio/Cincinnati Moeller) had collected three hits, including a home run, and driven in three runs, while freshman Michael Beedy (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) added a 2-for-3 performance with two runs batted in. Both of his hits were doubles.
Also of note, junior Brandon Jordan (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
