The Wilmington College baseball team put a scare into the 16th-ranked Baldwin Wallace Yellow Jackets Sunday, but the Fightin' Quakers were swept at Tewksbury-Delaney Field in Ohio Athletic Conference action.
Wilmington (3-19 overall, 0-8 OAC) returns to the diamond 1 p.m. Monday to host Muskingum in an OAC doubleheader.
GAME ONE: BALDWIN WALLACE 12, WILMINGTON 2
Baldwin Wallace scored in five of the first seven innings, including a six-run sixth inning, to get the victory.
Junior Clay Cleaver (Pleasant Plain, OH/Little Miami) brought home Wilmington's lone runs with a two-out, two-run triple in the bottom of the sixth inning. Junior Corey Walker (Hillsboro, OH/Hillsboro) started the rally with a two-out single, and freshman Jake Robinson (Westerville, OH/Central) continued the inning with a single. Both runners scored on Cleaver's triple.
In his first start of the season, junior Billy Foster (Xenia, OH/Xenia) allowed eight runs (seven earned) in 5 2/3 innings of work.
Robinson finished 2-for-4 with a run scored to account for half of WC's hits.
GAME TWO: BALDWIN WALLACE 7, WILMINGTON 5
Wilmington scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull to within one of the nationally-ranked Yellow Jackets. However, BW added a run in the top of the ninth inning, and the Fightin' Quakers couldn't mount another rally.
WC took advantage of some Yellow Jacket wildness to tally its four runs in the eighth with just one hit, a leadoff single by freshman Kyle Short (Trenton, OH/Edgewood). Freshman Chad Rairdon (Trafalgar, IN/Indian Creek) earned his first career RBI with a bases loaded walk, and then freshman Daniel Hayes (Beavercreek, OH/Beavercreek) scored another run on a passed ball.
After a walk to Walker, Robinson drew a bases loaded walk for another RBI. Senior Roenick Whitney (Goshen, OH/Goshen) brought home Rairdon with a ground out. Robinson, who had two of Wilmington's three hits, also scored from second on a ground out in the seventh inning.
Junior Cole Voltz (Mt. Sterling, OH/Madison Plains), in his first appearance of the season, allowed six runs (five earned) on seven hits in 6 2/3 innings.