Box Score The Wabash baseball team fell to Illinois Wesleyan Thursday evening, 11-9. The Little Giants had only committed 15 errors in 10 games entering the matchup against the Titans, but five errors plagued the home team in the loss.
 
"It was disappointing in all three facets of the game," Head Coach Cory Stevens said. "We made errors behind our starting pitcher and he lost a little bit of confidence. That big inning really turned the tide. Offensively, I thought we had opportunities with runners in scoring position where we went down looking or didn't put the ball in play. Really it was a letdown all the way around."
 
Wabash started the scoring in the bottom of the first. After David Oliger reached on an error, Clint Scarborough plated him two batters later with a single through the left side. Sam Santa Maria knotted the score in the top of the fourth with a RBI single for IWU.
 
Wesleyan's Jon Frericks smacked a three-run double in the next inning to take a 4-1 lead. The Titans loaded the bases after a Wabash error and two batters reaching on bunts.
 
"With that big inning, we had a couple of errors," Stevens said. "Then there was the bunt with runners on first and second and Luke (Holm) didn't come off the mound to field that. He wasn't locked in on the situation because of what was going on around him, but I think he's going to bounce back after this."
 
The Titans (4-5) added one more in the top of the fifth. Holm threw six innings, surrendered four earned runs, and struck out six.

The Little Giants answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the fifth. Trey Fankhauser and Oliger started the frame with singles, but Tyler Owensby grounded into a rally-killing double play, although Fankhauser scored.
 
"We preach approach and our approach is to hit fastballs early in the account," Stevens said. "If we see breaking balls, we don't have a great opportunity to put those in play hard so we'll wait until we get to two strikes to hit those. We had two runners on, then hit a first-pitch curveball and rolled over it. We only got one out of it and I thought we could have gotten a lot more."
 
IWU busted the game open to 9-3 with a four-run seventh. Four Titan hits and two more Little Giant errors fueled the inning.
 
"We have a very good defensive team as we've seen throughout the year so far," Oliger said. "It was just one of those nights where balls weren't going our way. I know as a team, we'll get that together and be ready to go this weekend."
 
Oliger batted 3-of-5 with a RBI and 2 runs on the evening. The sophomore first baseman entered the game only hitting .231, but found a groove Thursday.
 
"I was just trying to be more patient and get my pitch to hit," Oliger said. "Earlier in the season, I was chasing some balls that weren't necessarily good pitches to hit."
 
Wabash bats sprung to life in the ninth inning. The Little Giants scored 6 runs and worked three Titans pitchers before the Illinois team could head home with the win. Fankhauser, Oliger, and Tyler Hampton picked up an RBI in the frame. Andrew Roginski scored the final runs for Wabash on the night with a 2-RBI single through the right side. Also, Steven Curry notched his first career hit with a line drive into center.
 
"I thought we had more of patient approach in the ninth inning," Stevens said. "You're not going to hit a six-run home run so we need base runners in place to score runs. Our guys didn't have the pressure on them at that point. It was good to see a little bit of fight there at the end, but I don't think it should have gotten to that point."
 
Frericks led IWU with 4 RBI while starter Matt Hart picked up his second win of the season. Hart threw 6 innings and allowed 2 earned runs with 6 strikeouts.
 
The Little Giants (5-6) return to Goodrich Ballpark Sunday for a 12 p.m. first pitch versus Milikin University.