ALLIANCE, Ohio – The Wilmington College baseball team battled the University of Mount Union to a pair of Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) defeats on Saturday, falling 9-2 in game one and 12-2 in seven innings in game two.
In game one, the Purple Raiders opened the scoring with a two-out single to left from Chase Angotti scoring Walker Marlowe. The Fightin' Quakers got that run back with an unearned run that scored Joe Legin, who doubled to right field and stole third, in the top of the third.
After a scoreless fourth from both teams, Mount Union, thanks to two stolen bases from lead-off hitter Zack Mazza, plated two runs in the fifth. Trailing 3-1, Wilmington got Evan Kelsey, who singled to open the inning, to third with one out, but failed to score him. Lou Cardona led off the bottom of sixth and hosts put the game away with a five-run seventh inning.
Thomas Gallant earned the win for Mount Union, turning in a quality start of one earned run allowed in 6.1 innings pitched. Gallant scattered four hits with seven strikeouts and a single walk. GlenAllen Anderson dipped to 1-3 on the season with the loss, allowing seven earned runs on a dozen hits also in 6.1 innings. Tre Nixon was the Quakers' most effective pitcher of the game, allowing no runs on two hits in one inning.
Offensively, six Purple Raiders had multi-hit games including Mazza and Eric Schilling who each had three hits. As a team, Mount Union stole nine bases and wasn't caught once. For the Quakers, Legin went 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored while Jared Lammert had one hit and drove in both runs.
In the nightcap, the Quakers took a 1-0 lead on a solo home run to straight-away center field from Owen Baumann. The Purple Raiders answered with a home run of their own in the bottom half of the inning as Joey Nave's two-run blast was part of a three-run inning for the hosts. Leading 3-1, Mount Union added a single run in the fourth, and put the game away with a six-hit, eight-run fifth inning.
Carson Davis earned the win for Mount Union, pitching a quality start of six innings and two runs allowed to go along with eight strikeouts. Kaleb Stines, coming off of consecutive complete-game wins, fell to 2-4 allowing nine earned runs on nine hits in four-plus innings.
Baumann and Jesse Reliford and two-hit games for the Quakers while Nave and Shilling led the way for the Purple Raiders with two hits and multiple runs driven in each.
Wilmington (7-21, 6-18 OAC) will host Mount Union for a doubleheader at Tewksbury-Delaney Field tomorrow (Sunday). First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.
