Posted: Mar 16, 2019
WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Wilmington College baseball team mounted a late rally to get the tying run on base, but Franklin College held on for a 7-5 victory at Tewksbury-Delaney Field in game one of a weekend series on Saturday.
The final two games will be played at Franklin tomorrow (Sunday) with first pitch of the doubleheader slated for 1 p.m.
Franklin, the defending Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) regular season and tournament champions, scored a run in the first and used two Fightin' Quaker errors and three hits to score three unearned runs in the third. Wilmington threatened in the bottom of the inning, but ran into an out at third base that ended the threat.
Jared Ferenchak pitched around an error in the fourth, but the Grizzlies tagged the senior for two runs on two hits in the fifth. The visitors tacked on another in the sixth and led 7-0 after six complete.
Cameron Harbert got out of the top of the seventh by inducing a double play which seemed to spark the Wilmington offense in the bottom half of the inning. After a strikeout, a Jake Hyatt single and a Kasey Bottorff double put runners in scoring position. Mason Walker was hit by a pitch and Joe Legin drew a bases-loaded walk that scored the Quakers' first run. An Antonio Miller sacrifice fly scored another run, and Nick Silvis delivered a two-RBI single up the middle making the score 7-4 after seven complete.
Wilmington held Franklin off the scoreboard in the eighth and ninth innings which setup a rally in the bottom of the ninth. A Bottorff double opened the inning, and after a groundout, Joe Leegin walked and Miller hit an RBI-single that got the tying run on base. With runners on first and third and one out, Silvis hit a ball back up the middle that looked to get through for a base hit, but Nate Stonebraker, Franklin's pitcher who entered the game in the ninth inning, deflected the ball just enough for a game-ending 1-6-3 double play.
Aaron Leming earned the win allowing four earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts in 6.1 innings pitched. Stonebraker completed his second save of the season.
Trautman dipped to 0-4 with the loss despite allowing just one earned run in four innings. Harbert, who pitched in relief, struck out five and allowed one run in 3.1 innings pitched as Wilmington's most effective pitcher.
Bottorff finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored for Wilmington while Miller and Silvis both had two hits with two RBIs. Drew Naumovich led Franklin with a 3-for-3 performance that included three RBIs and two walks.
