*Story by David Wahl III
FRANKLIN, Indiana - The Wilmington College baseball team has won 6-of-the-last 7 on the season with credit to a seven-run sixth-inning against Franklin College on Wednesday afternoon. Wilmington (6-7) has now beaten Franklin (6-5) twice to open the 2023 season.
Franklin came out of the gates firing with three runs in the first inning, running Eli Martin off the mound before he was able to retire the third out. Wilmington Head Coach Tony Vittorio had to call the bullpen early as Kaleb Stines cleaned things up to finish out the first. The Grizzlies would plate another run against Stines in the bottom of the second while the Quaker offense was quiet the first two innings.
The Quakers got on the board in the top of the third after Tyler Shaneyfelt walked and later scored on an Evan Kelsey groundout. Franklin answered with two more runs in the fourth to extend the lead to 6-1. Down in a tough spot, the Quaker offense started to come to life in the fifth via pitching and fielding blunders by the Grizzlies. Franklin walked the bases loaded and with two outs WC scored all three runners on a throwing error that should have ended the inning. Regardless, WC inched closer as it trailed 6-4 after five innings.
Stines retired the side in the bottom of the fifth as he was finally able to settle in on the mound. The Quakers, trailing 6-4 entering the sixth, opened the inning with a single by Kyle Jennings, a hit-by-pitch by Carter Scheben, and a bunt single by Evan Eilerman. With the bases loaded, Shaneyfelt stepped up to the plate and was hit by the pitch, scoring Eilerman from third to lessen the Grizzly lead to 6-5. Two batters later, Jared Lammert singled up the middle, scoring Scheben, and a botched fielding attempt in centerfield allowed for Eilerman to score and take the lead for the Quakers. Back-to-back walks to Dominic Depa and Jesse Reliford allowed for a Caleb Scott flyout to score Shaneyfelt and a double by Jennings to round out the scoring in the seven-run sixth-inning that put the Quakers up 11-6.
Franklin attempted to battle back from the deficit as it scored five runs in the seventh and eighth-inning. Wilmington, however, was able to silence the crowd as it added three more insurance runs over the eighth and the ninth-inning. Luke Chappie closed things out on the mound for the Quakers, as he earned his first save of the season after retiring the side in the bottom of the ninth.
Stines earned the win to move to 2-0 on the season from the bump, after coming in early on from the bullpen to corral a busy Franklin offense. Reed Schaffer received the loss after pitching a single out and giving up 2 hits and four earned runs.
On the offensive side, Depa (2-4), Jennings (3-4), Lammert (2-6) and Eilerman (2-5) had multi-hit games for the squad. Scheben, Jennings and Shannyfelt all scored three-times on the day while Shannyfelt extended his team leading runs scored to 20 on the season over the first 13 games. Franklin's 1-2-3 punch of AJ Sanders, Sean Sullivan and Tysen Lipscomb all recorded multi-hit games.
Wilmington will come back home for a three-game series against Hiram College this weekend.
