WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Wilmington College baseball team swept Hiram College in doubleheader at blistery Tewksbury-Delaney Field on Sunday afternoon.
The Quakers took game one 1-0 and won the nightcap 8-5. Both games were pre-determined to be seven innings in length due to the sub-40 degree temperature.
Game one was a pitcher's dual as Aaron Boster and Jack Conley went toe-to-toe for seven innings. Both teams combined for eight hits with each side tallying a single double.
The Terriers threatened to score by getting runners into scoring position, but Boster caught batters window shopping in both frames, ending each inning with strikeouts looking. The Quakers, who couldn't cash in a one-out double in the first, utilized a Hiram error to score the only run of the game in the fifth. After Evan Eilerman reached base on said error and advanced to scoring position via a stolen base, Evan Kelsey knocked a single up the middle, and Eilerman beat the throw home.
Hiram would get two runners on in the top of the seventh, but once again, a strikeout looking ended the inning and the game.
Boster improved to 3-2 on the season by scattering five hits and four walks over seven innings with eight strikeouts. Conley took the loss despite striking out seven and only allowing three hits.
Kelsey has two of WC's three hits on the game while five Terriers finished with one hit apiece. Evan Fairbanks tallied the visitors' only extra-base hit of the contest.
The nightcap would not be a pitcher's duel, though Trent Mendenhall did pitch a quality start. Fairbanks singled down the left field line to open the scoring, but Wilmington would trail long as the Quakers plated three runs on three hits in the bottom half of the inning.
Mendenhall surrendered another run in the second, but pitched around the error and minimized the damage. Dominic Depa came through in the bottom half, plating both Jacob Feltner and Tyler Shaneyfelt. Leading 5-2 after two complete, the hosts tacked on three more runs in just a single hit – a Jared Lammert double down the left field line that scored two runs – in the bottom of the third to put the game out of reach.
Mendenhall improved to 2-1 with a quality start of six innings and two earned runs given up. Austin Christman pitched the last inning for the Quakers and gave up one single with a strikeout. Stephen Javorek took the loss as 1-of-5 Terriers to pitch, allowing five earned runs on seven hits in 1.2 innings.
Both teams had 10 hits in the game with Kelsey's 3-of-4 with three RBIs leading the way for the Quakers. Jared Lammert and Jesse Reliford both had multi-hit games while Shaneyfelt went 1-for-1 with two walks, four runs scored and a stolen base.
Chaisson Mars, Connor Bansek and Fairbanks all had two hits for Hiram (6-5) in defeat.
Wilmington improves to 8-7 with the sweep after starting the season 0-6. The Quakers head to Asbury University for single game on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.
