Greencastle, Ind. - DePauw wrapped up the home portion of its schedule with a North Coast Athletic Conference doubleheader sweep of visiting Hiram by scores of 5-4 and 11-6 to improve to 23-15 overall and 12-4 in the NCAC. Hiram finished its season at 14-26 overall and 3-13 in conference play.
In the opener, the teams battled through three scoreless innings before DePauw struck in the bottom of the fourth.
Hunter Hrbek drew a one-out walk, stole second and moved to third on a wild pitch.
Ty Sucher's sacrifice fly to center scored Hrbek.
Hiram got on the board in the sixth as John Bender walked with two outs and moved to third on Evan Fairbanks' double down the left field line. Logan Gallentine ripped a triple to right and then scored on AJ Caggiano's double to make it 3-1.
The lead didn't last long as
Aidan Howard was hit by a pitch to lead off the sixth and advanced to third on Hrbek's double.
Carter Knoll's sacrifice fly scored Howard and Hrbek advanced to third. Hrbek later scored on a wild pitch to even the score at 3-3.
The Terriers regained the lead in the seventh as Hal Walker Jr. led off with a walk and moved to second on Ethan Ryan's sacrifice bunt. Connor Bansek then followed with an RBI single to center.
Louis Florida led off the seventh with a single and stole second before moving to third on
Grady Johnson's single. A throwing error on a pickoff attempt at first allowed Florida to score and even the count at 4-4.
Hiram loaded the bases in the top of the ninth but
Justin Benes struck out Matthew Trimble to end the threat.
Cameron Macon singled to lead off the DePauw ninth and Johnson laid down a sacrifice bunt with Macon advancing to third as third base was undefended. Intentional walks to
Jack Murray and
Drew Straub followed before Hrebek drew a walk that scored Macon and gave the Tigers the win.
Florida and Macon each had two of DePauw's nine hits, while Yoder had two of Hiram's eight hits.
Benes improved to 1-1 with the win, while Jacob Koces dropped to 3-5.
DePauw grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the nightcap as Knoll's single scored Florida and Macon but Hiram came back with two in the second as Yoder scored Bender and Fairbanks with a double before Caggiano came home on a wild pitch and Yoder scored on Walker's sacrifice fly which gave the Terriers a 4-2 advantage.
Macon's triple in the bottom of the second scored Bond and Johnson doubled home Macon to even the score at 4-4.
Brennan Roach's double in the third plated Knoll and Straub and gave the Tigers a 6-4 lead. Yoder's single in the fourth scored Gallentine and Caggiano came home when Ryan reached on a fielder's choice.
Straub's two-run homer in the fourth and solo shot in the seventh pushed the Tigers' lead to 9-6. Straub just missed a third homer in the eighth as Yoder snagged it with a leap at the wall, but the sacrifice fly scored Johnson.
Eli Bell then doubled home Knoll to wrap up the scoring.
Knoll had four of the Tigers' 14 hits with Johnson following with three and Straub adding two. Bansek paced Hiram with three of its seven hits with Yoder contributing two.
Griffin Albright improved to 4-2, while Matthew Kardos dropped to 0-1.
DePauw opens NCAC Tournament play in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Thursday as the third seed. The Tigers face second-seed Denison at 3:30 p.m.
