The baseball team took two of three wins from Kenyon College in the annual North Coast Athletic Conference Crossover series to clinch the number one seed in the West division of the NCAC.
The team started the three game series on Saturday and found themselves down 6-4 in the eighth inning. The team used their offensive firepower that has carried them all season to produce six runs in the eighth to give them the 10-6 victory.
Senior Reid Pittard hit in the first run of the inning with a fielder’s choice, and senior Jack Thompson followed him up with a single that tied the game at 6-6. Junior Collin Einertson finally brought in the winning run with a sacrifice fly. Seniors Tate Stewart and Max Cohen continued the rally with hits of their own to give the Tigers more insurance.
Sophomore Jack Dillon earned the win in relief after finishing the game with two scoreless innings. Senior Mike Hammel was the starter and only allowed one run through five innings. Kenyon finally got their bats going in the sixth, however, as they scored five runs while knocking Hammel out of the game.
Sophomore Grant Rademacher said the team is always in position to make a comeback in every game.
“One of our themes of our season has definitely been our resiliency,” Rademacher said. “We’ve had so many come-from-behind wins it’s almost hard to keep track of all of them. It doesn’t matter how far we are down; we are never out of the fight.”
In the opening game on Sunday, Kenyon avenged their loss and took home an 8-6 win over the Tigers.
DePauw found themselves quickly down 6-3, but Einertson homered to right field in the bottom of the sixth inning to cut the lead to 6-5. Later in the eighth inning, Einertson drove in another run as he scored Thompson on a sacrifice fly to right field.
The Lords bounced back as they were able to record a single and a double off of senior Nick Horvath in the ninth inning giving them the 8-6 win.
Senior Andrew Quinn went five innings, while giving up four earned runs as the starter. Rademacher recorded three scoreless innings in relief. Rademacher said the loss fueled the team’s fire for the series finale.
“We knew we were the better team and that we should have won that second game,” Rademacher said. “That just made the third game that much more important.”
The Tigers needed a comeback in game three in order to get the series win. Trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Thompson came up to the plate with fellow seniors Pittard and Ryan Grippo on base. With his last game on Walker Field on the line, the senior did what he has done all year and nailed a home run over the right field wall to give DePauw the lead. This was his 13th home run of the year, which broke the school record.
Senior Riley Futterknecht picked up the no decision as he gave up four runs in six innings. Dillon got the win after throwing an inning of scoreless baseball. First-year Brayden White recorded his first save of his collegiate baseball career.
The wins give the men the number one seed in the West Division of the NCAC. This puts them in the four-team, double elimination tournament this weekend.
“We’re ready,” junior Jonathon Azar said. “This is what we work all season for. Our three qualities that we’ve stuck with this year are grit, resiliency and selflessness. If we continue to stick to these, then the tournament should be fun.”
The team improved their record to 29-9 overall and 12-5 in the NCAC. They take on Oberlin College, the second seed in the East Division, Thursday at 8 p.m. at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio.