It was an interesting weekend for the DePauw men's baseball players, as they evened their overall record to 7-7. On Saturday the Tigers defeated Manchester College 10-3 and Alma College 9-1. Sunday brought a disappointing 14-2 loss against Manchester and a 10-9 loss to Marian University.
"It was a mediocre weekend," said Sean Brennan, a freshman pitcher. "We're still just looking for consistency."
In the Tigers' first game against Manchester, the team scored seven runs in the bottom of the third inning. They then sent 12 batters to the plate in the bottom half of the frame and scored all seven runs with two outs. Junior Rob McPike reached on a bunt single and scored on junior Alex Wright's double. Sophomore Zach Galyean followed with a double and junior Alex Berlyn with a run-scoring single to make it 3-1.
Freshman Robbie Stein's double scored Berlyn, and junior Chris Forbringer followed-up by plating Stein with a single. Senior Ben Gardner followed with a single before junior Sam Swafford singled home two.
The Tigers totaled 17 hits led by Stein's three. Gardner, Swafford, Wright, Galyean, Berlyn and Forbringer had two each. Junior Hobs Donovan improved 2-1 after allowing two earned runs in eight innings.
Against Alma, DePauw extended its winning streak to 4 games. Gardner and Swafford each had three of DePauw's 13 hits, while Wright and Galyean followed with two each. Swafford also drove in three. Junior Elliot Ross pitched the entire game and improved to 2-1 and added eight strikeouts without allowing a walk.
On Sunday, DePauw fell to Manchester, who scored six in the first before adding three more in the second inning and four in the fourth, eventually leading 14-0.
"I think we lost focus," said head coach Jake Martin. "We got off to a slow start on game three. We really dug some holes in our offense we couldn't make up for."
The Tigers' two runs came in the seventh inning as freshman Pat Lyons doubled and scored on Swafford's double. Sophomore out-fielder Sam Yeary's sacrifice fly then scored Swafford. DePauw totaled 10 hits in the loss, and Swafford led the way with three. DePauw played four different pitchers, senior Mike Peterson and freshmen JT Timmer, Alex Sroka and Brendan Bolander.
Agsinst Marian, the Knights scored four in the first inning before the Tigers added two in the third on an RBI single by Yeary and an infield error. Marian added four more in the fourth after collecting six straight singles with two out.
Freshman Brendon Pashia's pinch-hit homer to lead off the sixth closed the Marian lead to 8-3, but the Knights added two more in the seventh on Brody Edgerly's double.
Yeary's two-run single in the seventh plated junior Aaron Henry and Gardner. The Tigers added three more in the eighth with two outs as Gardner, Yeary and McPike hit consecutive RBI singles to make it 10-8. In the bottom of the ninth, Stein hit a two-out double and scored on Swafford's single-to-left. Henry followed with a single, but Gardner's fly-out-to-center ended the comeback.
"The guys didn't quit, they kept fighting until the end," Martin said.
Each team totaled 17 hits with Gardner and Yeary each collecting four for DePauw. McPike, Stein and Henry each had two and Yeary drove in four runs. Four pitchers also played in the Marion game: freshmen Michael Chiaro, sophomores Joe Wojda and Derek Mounsey and junior Andy Manson.
"We can't get caught up about one bad day," Brennan said. "We need to just be able to move on."