BLUFFTON, Ohio – The Wilmington College baseball team swept Bluffton University in a doubleheader on Saturday, winning two low-scoring games 1-0 and 3-1 against the Beavers.
In game one, the Fightin' Quakers had a runner in scoring position in six of the first ever innings, but failed to deliver an RBI-hit. Bluffton also had chances to score, getting a runner 90 feet from home plate three times, but similar to Wilmington, couldn't drive in a run.
Wilmington finally broke through in the ninth inning as Gage Bley hit a one-out single and was bunted over to second base by Alec Robinette. Catcher Kasey Bottorff singled Bley home with outs to score the game's only run.
Robinette improved to 3-0 with the win in relief as he pitched 2.2 innings without surrendering a hit. Starter Joey Hollback was also effective, scattering six hits and strikeout out seven in 6.1 innings.
Dante D'Andrea took the loss for Bluffton allowing the winning run to cross the plate in one inning pitched.
Bley and Bottorff combined for four of the Quakers' five hits as a team. Daniel Hayes added one hit. On the flip side, Bluffton had six Beavers record one hit.
Game two was much of the same as neither team scored in the first three innings. Luke Kleindl broke through in the fourth inning with an RBI-single that scored Jake Hyatt, but Bluffton battled back to tie the game on a double, single and sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth.
With the game tied after five complete innings, Kleindl came through once again in the sixth with a two-RBI double scoring Josh Chua and Joe Legin. Jared Ferenchak completed his second complete-game victory by shutting down the Beavers in the last two innings.
Ferenchak allowed just four hits and one earned run over seven innings. His counterpart, Colby Clifton, also went the distance and allowed five hits and three earned runs.
Kleindl finished 2-for-3 with three RBIs to account for two of Wilmington's five hits. Jacoby Latkofsky recorded two hits for the Beavers.
Wilmington improves to 7-6 overall with the win and hosts Pitt.-Bradford for a double-header tomorrow (Sunday) beginning at noon.