Marietta baseball sweeps Baldwin-Wallace on the road 5-4 and 10-8
Pioneers remain one game back of first place with two games to play

April 26, 2008
BEREA, Ohio — The Marietta College baseball team kept pace in the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) standings thanks to a pair of victories Saturday (April 26) afternoon at Baldwin-Wallace College. The Etta Express, who climb above .500 for the first time this season, improved to 18-17 overall and 12-4 in the OAC with 5-4 and 10-8 victories. The Yellow Jackets fell to 17-16-1, 7-8 in league play.

Marietta remains one game back of first place Heidelberg College with two games left on both team’s OAC schedules. On Saturday (May 3), the Student Princes play host to John Carroll University, while the Pioneers take on visiting Ohio Northern University. The winner of the regular season hosts the four-team OAC Tournament May 8-10. Marietta has not hosted the tournament since 2005.

The Pioneers out hit the Yellow Jackets 8-6 in the opener and were able to overcome three errors in the win.

Junior T.J. Knowlton (Greenwich/Mapleton) earned the victory to improve to 8-2. He scattered four runs (three earned) on six hits and struck out six in 6 1/3 innings. Junior Chris Stewart (Dublin/Dublin Coffman) picked up the save, his second of the year, after retiring the final two batters in the seventh.

Junior Justin Merryman (New Philadelphia), senior Dom Winters (Washington, Pa.) and freshman Chris Dowdell (North Ridgeville/Walsh Jesuit) all had two hits in the victory.

Marietta took a 1-0 lead in the second when Winters and sophomore Danny Jones (Lima/Shawnee) produced back-to-back doubles with one out. Winters then homered to put the Pioneers on top 3-0 in the fourth. The home run was his team-leading fifth of the spring.

The Etta Express added another run in the fifth when Merryman singled home Dowdell, who also had a hit in the inning.

Baldwin-Wallace pulled within a run, 4-3, by scoring three runs on four hits in the sixth. The Pioneers plated their final run in the seventh when Dowdell doubled home junior Josh Spicer (Gibsonia, Pa./Pine-Richland). The Yellow Jackets loaded the bases with the help of two errors and scored a run on a wild pitch, but Stewart got a strikeout and a ground out to end the game with Marietta holding on, 5-4.

Stewart climbed back on the hill to start game two and worked five solid innings to pick up the win and improve to 4-2. The left-hander allowed five runs on 10 hits and fanned one. Freshman Casey Levens (Dayton/Centerville) pitched the sixth. Junior Jason Baumler (Crownsville, Md./Old Mill) then got the next five outs, while Merryman closed the door by retiring the final four Yellow Jackets to earn his second save of the year.

Baldwin-Wallace actually out slugged Marietta 15-14 in the nightcap, which saw both teams leave eight on base and combine for four errors.

Sophomore Britt Meador (Columbus/Worthington Kilbourne) finished 3-for-5, while junior Cameron Cimino (Boardman), Winters, Jones and sophomore Matt DeSico (Euclid) all had a pair of hits in the win.

Again, Marietta got on the board first with a run in the second inning. The Pioneers loaded the bases with no outs and Winters came across on a fielder’s choice in the frame. The same scenario produced a run in the third as Merryman scored on a fielder’s choice to put the Etta Express up 2-0.

Baldwin-Wallace plated a run in the third and took the lead briefly with two more in the fourth. The lead was short-lived as Marietta scored six in the fifth to regain the lead for good, 8-3. Senior Tony Piconke (Clinton Township, Mich./Clintondale) and Winters had RBI singles. DeSico then added a two-run triple. Junior Brennan Cribbins (Middleburg Heights/Midpark) also came through with a RBI double, while Cribbins scored the final run on a double steal.

The Yellow Jackets did not quit and plated three more runs in the sixth and another in the seventh to cut the lead to 8-7. Marietta added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth when Winters tripled and scored on a Jones single, and then DeSico drove in Jones with a double.

Baldwin-Wallace rallied for one run in the ninth but a 5-4-3 double play ended the threat and secured the 10-8 victory.