Sean Smith scattered eight hits over eight innings and was rewarded with an offensive explosion as the Wabash baseball team defeated Hiram College 14-4 in eight innings in the first of two North Coast Athletic Conference games Saturday at Goodrich Ballpark. The Little Giants swept the series with a 3-1 victory in game two.
 
Smith surrendered a run in the first and second innings and gave up two more in the fourth before settling in for Wabash (19-15, 7-6 NCAC) on the mound to limit Hiram (5-25-, 0-14 NCAC) to two hits over the final four innings. The sophomore walked three and struck out two to earn his second victory of the season.
 
Erich Lange started the scoring for the Little Giants in the third inning with a two-run double down the left field line to score Sean Roginski and Andrew Jumonville. Matthew Annee provided the big blow in the fifth inning, launching a three-run home run on top of the batting cages in right field to put Wabash in front 5-4. Eric Chavez added a two-run single to right center as the Little Giants took advantage of two Hiram errors in the inning to move in front 7-4.
 
Wabash scored six runs in the sixth inning to open up a 13-4 lead. Annee picked up his fourth RBI of the game on a single through the left side to score Jackson Blevins. Lange lifted a sacrifice fly to right to bring in the second run of the inning. Canton Terry pushed another run across in the inning with a sacrifice fly to left that was dropped for the third error of the game for Hiram. Chavez brought in another run with a bunt single, followed by an RBI ground out by Austin Simmers. Blevins drove in another run with single two batters later for the sixth run of inning.
 
The game ended in the eighth due to the 10-run rule in conference play when a one-out ground ball by Jared Wolfe was misplayed by the Terriers, allowing pinch runner Cameron Martin to score from third.
 
Blevins led the Little Giants' offense with three hits while Annee, Lange, and Chavez finished with two hits apiece for Wabash.
 
Wabash struck early in game two with an RBI triple by Terry to score Jumonville and provide a 1-0 lead for the Little Giants. Hiram tied the score at 1-1 with solo home run by PJ Suso to lead off the fourth inning. That was one of only four hits off starter Dylan Scheid and the only run allowed in the game as the freshman earned his third victory of the season. He struck out three batters and walked one. Scheid held Hiram to two hits over his final three innings of work before turning the baseball over to reliever Zach Moffett in the ninth. Moffett recorded his third save of the year by retiring the Terriers in order, striking out the final two batters to preserve the victory.
 
The Little Giants took the lead in the fifth inning on an RBI double by Chavez. Roginski added an insurance run in the eighth inning on a fielder's choice for the 3-1 lead. Roginski finished the day with three hits on the day, giving him 204 for his career and two hits shy of tying Chris Deig for the Wabash all-time hits record of 206. He led Wabash with two hits in game two against Hiram.
 
The victory moved Wabash into a tie with Allegheny for fourth place in the NCAC standings. Both teams trail DePauw University in third place with a conference record of 7-5. The Tigers split a pair of games at Ohio Wesleyan Saturday afternoon, winning game one 21-0 before losing the nightcap 7-6.
 
Wabash and DePauw will play two games at Goodrich Ballpark on Sunday beginning at noon. Little Giant fans will honor the senior members of the 2019 Wabash team ten minutes prior to the first pitch of game one.