SPRINGFIELD, Ohio – A six-run, late innings rally by the Wittenberg baseball team was just short of completing the comeback on Sunday, as the Tigers fell to Oberlin by a score of 9-6 and just missed a berth in the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament.
The Yeomen visited Springfield for three-games during the first-ever NCAC Crossover Weekend, and completed a 2-1 series victory with the win. Oberlin now moves to the NCAC Tournament for the first time in its history.
The Tigers finish the regular season with a solid 23-16 overall record and a 9-10 mark in NCAC play, including an 8-8 mark in West Division competition.
The Yeomen set the tone early with two runs out of the gate off Wittenberg freshman starting pitcher Jordan Hitt (South Charleston, Ohio/Southeastern). Hitt buckled down to hold Oberlin scoreless through the next four innings, while the Tigers had trouble figuring out opposing pitcher Mike McDonald.
McDonald employed a combination of side-arm and three-quarters slot deliveries to keep Wittenberg guessing. It worked well enough to hold the Tigers scoreless through seven innings as the Yeomen added two in the sixth to build a 4-0 lead.
A scoreless seventh frame gave way to big offensive pushes from both sides in the eighth.
Oberlin pushed across four runs in the top half to make it a seemingly secure 8-0 lead, but the Tigers had other ideas in mind once they deciphered McDonald's action.
Junior Alex Lochard (Sidney, Ohio/Sidney) laced a single into left field to open the bottom half and gave way to freshman Michael Beedy (Springfield, Ohio/Shawnee) as a pinch runner. With one out, sophomore Zac Wilson (Eaton, Ohio/Eaton) laid down a perfect bunt single to the third-base side, and sophomore Brandon Reaman (Dayton, Ohio/Northmont) followed with an RBI single through the infield to score Beedy for the Tigers' first run of the game.
Junior Tyler Hutchinson (Lebanon, Ohio/Cincinnati Moeller) stepped in and delivered an RBI single to right center before senior Graham Wolff (Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) waited out a walk to load the bases. Junior David Moore (Tipp City, Ohio/Tippecanoe) then pushed a hit through the right side to cut the deficit to 8-3.
With the bases again loaded, senior Grant Goodwin (Hilliard, Ohio/Davidson) lanced a two-run single into right field and finally forced the Yeomen to make a change on the mound, but that led to an inning-ending double play that stemmed the damage at five runs.
Oberlin manufactured a run in the top of the ninth to make it 9-5. The Tigers answered that with a leadoff home run from Beedy in the bottom of the frame, but the rally ended three runs short of a comeback.
Hutchinson finished the game 3-5 with an RBI and a run scored, while Reaman pulled in at 2-4 with an RBI, a run scored and a walk.
Wilson went 2-5 with a run and finishes the season a perfect 26-for-26 in stolen bases to mark the first perfect season of more than 13 attempts in team history. Jerry Cicolani went 13-13 in 1991, Chris Tillotson was 12-12 in 1992, and Ray Noe was 10-10 in 2009. Wilson's total also qualifies him for second in the single-season stolen bases record, behind only Brad Kellenberger's 1985 season total of 30.
For his career, Wilson has 34 stolen bases, good for seventh in Tiger records, in 36 attempts for a .944 percentage, which currently stands second. The only better career percentage was that of Bryan Magoteaux, who was perfect in 21 attempts from 1996 to 1999.
In other categories, Brandon Reaman climbed the list all the way to third in single-season records for hits with a whopping 62 on the year and also stands tied for seventh in stolen bases with 28. Graham Wolff knocked 15 doubles to qualify for a seventh-place tie, while his 112 assists is now the sixth-best mark. Tyler Hutchinson finishes the year as the most punished hitter in team history, hit by a pitch a brutal 16 times.
In career categories, Grant Goodwin will slide into an eighth-place tie with 159 hits and adds to his record in sacrifice hits with six this year to finish with 23. Wolff ends his career in a fourth-place tie with 314 assists, followed immediately by Goodwin with 305. With a career ERA of 3.36, senior Zach Finke (Maineville, Ohio/St. Xavier) is now the fourth-ranked pitcher in the category.
John Strawn '07
