Crawfordsville, Ind.- Matt Walker probably welcomed the challenge ever since he came to DePauw. On Saturday, the sophomore pitched in his hometown of Crawfordsville against the Tigers' biggest rival- Wabash College.

All Walker did was toss a five-hit compete game at the Little Giants as the Old Gold won the first game of an Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader, 2-1.

Wabash won the nightcap, 7-5, but the Tigers remain in first in the ICAC with a 7-1 conference mark. Overall DePauw is 19-12. Wabash now stands at 20-13 and 8-4.

The Tigers opened the scoring in the first inning as Tom Fagan hit a one-out single and stole second. Adam Dill singled him home to give DePauw a 1-0 lead. Wabash knotted the score in the fourth as Zak Judd led off with a double, was advanced to third on a fly out to center and scored on Steve Baloski's pop up to second in the outfield grass.

DePauw came right back in the fifth with the game-winner as Brad Heizman led off with a single and moved to second on Mike Thieken's bunt. Jared Johnson's ground out moved Heizman to third and Greg Seitz's single scored him.

The Tigers' defense came up big in turning three double plays including ones in the sixth and seventh innings with Thieken making line drive stabs at third and doubling runners off of first.

The second game saw the Tigers quickly take the lead with two runs in the first on a double steal by Fagan and Johnson with the latter scoring. Dill then drove in Fagan with a single to make it 2-0.

Tiger starter Derek Coe ran into trouble in the second as the first three batters reached base on a walk, base hit and hit batsman. Trevor Starnes then cleared the bases with a grand slam to left that gave the Little Giants a 4-2 lead. They went on to score three more and chase Coe from the mound. Jim Combs came in to get the final out of the inning and eventually pitched 4 1/3 innings of scoreless ball.

The Tigers did score three in the fourth as Rob Kiburz led off with a walk and was tripled home by Tom Heldt. Two outs later, Johnson was hit by a pitch and Fagan reached base on an error that allowed Johnson to advance to third. Again the Old Gold called for the double steal and again worked it successfully.

The deciding factor in game two was the Tigers' inability to figure out Wabash pitching. After striking out nine times in game one, they went down 11 times in the nightcap against starter Carey Tonovitz and once against reliever Matt McGuire.

DePauw travels to Marian on Monday for a 4:30 p.m. doubleheader.