The DePauw baseball team took three big steps in the right direction with three opening weekend matches over Washington University in St. Louis.
In the team's first game of the 2012 spring season on Saturday, DePauw opened with a scrappy 4-2 a win against the Bears. Senior pitcher Elliot Ross started on the mound for the day and allowed just four hits on six innings, but junior Joe Wojda earned the win after pitching one inning of scoreless relief. Senior Hobbs Donovan got the save.
The team followed Saturday's win by two impressive performances against the Bears on a Sunday double-header. The Tigers won the morning game 12-3 and the afternoon game 22-9.
In the opener, Washington held a small lead briefly before DePauw scored on three unearned runs in the second and added a single run in third off of doubles from sophomore Brendon Pashia and junior Jason Cohen. The Tigers added another four in the fifth off of runs batted in by senior Alex Wright, senior Alex Berlyn and sophomore Pat Lyons.
Washington answered briefly before DePauw put the game away in the seventh inning after three more runs started off a double from senior captain Sam Swafford.
"It was nice to get a clean win," Swafford said.
Senior Andy Manson earned the win with his first start of the season.
"It felt good to get a win my first time out," Manson said, "I wasn't too pleased with my play, but I had my team behind me and it still feels good to come out with a W."
The afternoon game started again with an early 4-0 lead by Washington, but DePauw added four in the fourth to tie the game after a two run single by senior Chris Forbringer and a two-run homer by Pashia. The team's traded leads again before another four run inning in the sixth gave the Tigers a 9-5 lead.
The game turned ugly in the seventh inning as DePauw totalled 11 runs on 10 hits to extend the lead to 20-7. In the inning, the first nine batters reached base on either a walk or single. The tigers added one each in the next two innings and Washington earned two in the eighth to end the game with a 22-9 win for DePauw. Sophomore pitcher Brendan Bolander picked up the win.
On the day, DePauw totalled 34 runs and 37 hits to sweep the double-header and end the weekend undefeated against Washington. After a disappointing spring season, the win was a relief for a team that was still fighting over what went wrong in 2011.
"Things never seemed to come together for us last season," Swafford said. "To get three wins, two big ones, our first time out is a great feeling. Now we just got to keep moving forward and grab some more wins."
The Tigers will travel to Anderson this Saturday to continue their 2012 spring season.