Marietta defeats Elizabethtown to remain undefeated in Mideast Regional
Etta Express return to action Friday against Manchester at 12 p.m.

May 18, 2006
TERRE HAUTE, Indiana — The Marietta College baseball team continued to its impressive showing at the Mideast Regional by taking down previously unbeaten Elizabethtown (Pa.) 10-5 Thursday (May 18) evening at Art Nehf Field on the campus of Rose-Hulman (Ind.).

With the victory, the Pioneers improved to 37-10 on the year and advance to take on undefeated Manchester (Ind.) (35-9) in the winner’s bracket final Friday at noon.

Marietta jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning thanks to its seniors. Senior Chris Hendricks (Little Hocking/Warren Local) started the inning with a single and scored when senior Jarrod Klausman (Altoona, Pa.) reached base on an error. Klausman also scored on a ground out by senior Justin Steranka (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) in the inning after advancing two bases on wild pitches.

Following the top of the first, the game was delayed for nearly three hours because of rain. Once it resumed, Elizabethtown got on the board in the third, when it loaded the bases with no outs against senior Mike DeMark (Jeanette, Pa./Penn-Trafford). DeMark induced a 6-4-3 double play, but a run scored on the play.

The Pioneers responded with a four-run fourth inning to extend their lead to 6-1. Marietta loaded the bases with one out. Lee Guerrera (Wolcott, Conn.) then lined a ball off the Blue Jay pitcher Scott Beard’s foot. Beard got to the ball but made an errant throw to the plate allowing two Pioneers to score.

A two-run homer by Elizabethtown’s catcher Tom Semanek in its half of the fourth brought the Blue Jays back within three runs, 6-3.

Marietta got those two runs back in the sixth and knocked Beard out of the game. Sophomore Tony Piconke (Clinton Twp., Mich./Clintondale) delivered the big hit, a two-run single to right field.

The Blue Jays got to DeMark for two more runs in their sixth inning, but freshman Jason Baumler (Crownsville, Md./Old Mill) came in to get out of the inning and shutdown Elizabethtown for the rest of the game to earn the save.

The Etta Express added two runs in the eighth. Junior Joe Litke (Windsor, Conn.) and freshman Josh Beebe (Fleming/Warren Local) had RBI in the frame.

DeMark allowed five runs on four hits in four innings to improve to 7-1 on the year.

Marietta’s offense pounded out 10 hits. Hendricks finished 3-for-5 with a double, two runs scored and a RBI. Steranka added a pair of doubles in three at-bats, while Piconke also had two hits.

In other action Thursday, Manchester upset top-seeded Wooster 5-4 in a game that was started Wednesday night before the rain came. Otterbein also knocked off Kings 7-3 in the first elimination game of the Tournament. In addition, Wooster and Otterbein were going head-to-head in another elimination game after the conclusion of Marietta’s contest.

All of the Pioneers’ action during the Mideast Regional can be heard live on WMOA-AM 1490 and on mariettaonline.com.