Wabash split a pair of North Coast Athletic Conference western division baseball games at Ohio Wesleyan University Saturday afternoon. The Little Giants scored a 5-4 victory in the series opener only to see the host Battling Bishops score a run in the eighth to tie game two before taking a 5-4 victory with a run in the ninth.
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Bryce Aldridge gave Wabash a 1-0 lead in game one, driving
Jared Wolfe home with an RBI single in the first inning. OWU scored a pair of runs in the second inning thanks to a two-run double by Dalton Henderson. The Little Giants answered another run by OWU in the third with an RBI double by
Henry Wannemuehler and run-scoring error off the bat of
Sean Roginski to even the score at 3-3.
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Cole Harlacher gave Wabash the lead in the seventh with a two-run double to score
Andrew Roginski and
Sean Roginski.
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Ohio Wesleyan (10-11, 3-3 NCAC West) rallied in the ninth with a one-out single by Michael Blatchford. A two-out double by Aaron Strausbaugh trimmed the lead to 5-4 with two outs.
Erich Lange came in the pitch in relief of
Luke Dant and induced a pop out to the catcher in foul ground to earn his first career save.
Jensen Kirch claimed the victory to improve to 3-2 for the season. He worked 6-1/3 innings, giving up 12 hits and one walk with four strikeouts. He allowed three earned runs. Dant pitched 2-1/3 innings in relief of Kirch, allowing two hits and one earned run to go with one strikeout.
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Sean Roginski went 3-for-5 from the plate in game one.
Jared Wolfe and
Tyler Downing collected two hits apiece. Wabash finished with 11 hit for the game.
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The Little Giants jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning in game two. Wolfe started the inning with a double, then scored on a double by
Eric Chavez.
Sean Roginski tripled to score Chavez, then
Andrew Roginski drove his brother home with a single. The Battling Bishops answered with two unearned runs in the second, then tied the game at 3-3 in the fourth with another unearned run.
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Downing gave Wabash a one-run lead with an RBI groundout in the sixth inning. The Battling Bishops fought for a run in the eighth with a two-out double down the left field line to score Strausbaugh after he reached base by being hit by a pitch. Wabash threatened in the ninth when
Nick Chao reached on an error to lead off the inning. A sacrifice bunt moved him to second and a fly out to right advanced Chao to third, but he was stranded there on a ground out to end the inning.
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The ninth started in similar fashion for Ohio Wesleyan. Colin Stolly reached base with a single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt. The Little Giants walked the next hitter to set up the force play on a ground ball, but Henderson lifted a single to center to score Stolly with the walk off game winning run.
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Lange took the loss in game two, allowing two hits and one earned run with one intentional walk in 1/3 of an inning of work.
Bryan Roberts started on the mound for the Little Giants, pitching seven innings of five-hit baseball. He scattered five hits and gave up three unearned runs while striking out six batters. Dant gave up one run on one hit in an inning of relief.
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Wolfe, Chavez, and
Andrew Roginski combined for six of the Little Giants' eight hits in game two. Each produced two hits.
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Wabash (12-11, 1-5 NCAC West) and Ohio Wesleyan will complete the four-game series with a doubleheader Sunday slated to begin at noon in Delaware, Ohio.
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