Chillicothe, Ohio - Third-seed DePauw scored three in the eighth and one in the ninth and held on for a 7-6 win over Wittenberg in game two of the North Coast Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament. The Tigers improved to 28-11 and will face top-seed and number-one ranked Denison in tomorrow's 10 a.m. winner's bracket game. Wittenberg dropped to 29-10 and takes on John Carroll in tomorrow's 1:30 p.m. elimination game.
DePauw got out to a quick start as
Aidan Howard led off the game with a single. After
Grady Johnson reached on a fielder's choice that forced Howard with the second out,
Zach O'Connell singled and
Louis Florida hammered a three-run homer to right.
Wittenberg got on the board in the second as Quintin Applegate led off with a triple and scored on Corbin Marshall's single. Wittenberg added one more in the third as James MacAuley led off with a double, moved to third on Alex Nemunaitis' fly out and came home on Xander Rodriguez's double.
DePauw maintained the 3-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh when Wittenberg's Daniel Gladden singled with one out and pinch-runner JT Bried moved to third on Charlie Marando's single. MacAuley lifted a fly ball into short left that the Tigers were unable to field cleanly, but Marando was forced at second and Bried scored. Nemunaitis singled to right center, driving in MacAuley and giving Wittenberg its first lead of the game at 4-3.
DePauw wasted little time in responding as O'Connell led off the eighth with a walk and moved to second on Florida's infield single.
Cuinn Morrow's single to left scored O'Connell and an error on the play allowed Morrow to advance to second.
Nolan Osterling walked to load the bases before before
Bryson Dorsey and
Tyler Walkey hit back-to-back sacrifice flies to give DePauw a 6-4 advantage.
DePauw added one in the ninth as
Max Bond led off with a walk and moved to third on Johnson's single. Florida then delivered a sacrifice fly that plated Bond and extended the Tigers' lead to 7-4.
Wittenberg wasn't done as Applegate, Marshall and Gavin Lones singled to load the bases with no outs. MacAuley reached on a fielder's choice that forced Lones at second but brought home Applegate. Marshall scored on a wild pitch but a fly out ended the game.
Johnson, Florida and Morrow each had two of DePauw's 10 hits with Florida driving in four.
Nemunaitis had three of Wittenberg's 13 hits with Applegate and Marshall adding two apiece.
Justin Benes went the distance in his longest collegiate outing and improved to 6-2 after striking out two and not walking a batter. Mikey Eickhof took the loss in relief and dropped to 2-1.
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