The DePauw baseball team took the field in Millington, Tenn. for the first time in six years without Jake Martin as its head coach. Victories over Greenville College, the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor, and Rhodes College showed promise for the Blake Allen coaching era.
The team jumped out to an early 3-0 lead Friday against Greenville when two errors gave DePauw two baserunners. Senior Jack Thompson brought them in with a double, and senior Tate Stewart brought Thompson home a sacrifice fly. The Panthers came back in the bottom half of the inning when Travis Ralls and Shane Olmstead hit back-to-back home runs off of senior Mike Hammel to cut the lead to 3-2.
Hammel settled down after the home runs and recorded three straight scoreless innings before two errors by Stewart and senior catcher Zack Wade contributed to three unearned runs in the bottom of the fifth to give Greenville a 5-4 lead.
One of the areas of improvement Allen believes his team can make after this weekend is cutting down on those errors.
“Overall, we need to get better defensively,” Allen said. “Defense and baserunning are really the two areas we need to focus in on moving forward.”
DePauw responded with a run in the top of the sixth to tie it. Senior Max Cohen’s single up the middle scored Thompson, giving the Tigers a 6-5 lead. Junior Grant Rademacher took over for Hammel in relief and threw a scoreless eighth to take the win, while senior Nick Horvath got the save after a scoreless ninth inning. Rademacher left the game impressed with how the team responded to being down in their first game of the year.
“It was the type of game that sets a precedent for the entire year,” Rademacher said. “We know we have the ability to come back and win any game now because we did it in the first game.”
The team came out in the next game and flashed their bats by putting up six runs in the fifth and 14 total hits to earn an 11-4 victory over Mary-Hardin Baylor.
The team was led by their stars, seniors Reid Pittard, Ryan Grippo, Stewart and Thompson. The four went a combined 10-19 and drove in six runs. Senior Andrew Quinn picked up the win on the mound after giving up four earned runs in five innings of work.
The team finally took on Rhodes on Sunday to cap off the weekend. Through five innings, the game was notched up 2-2 before Rhodes strung together four hits to get two runs in the bottom of the sixth.
DePauw responded with a run in the seventh to cut the lead to 4-3. With runners on first and second and with one out in the eighth, Hammel, the clean-up hitter, had a chance to tie the game with a base hit. He did better than that and shot a home run over the left field wall, giving the Tigers a 6-4 lead. Two batters later, Wade hit a solo home run, giving DePauw a 7-5 victory and its second comeback win of the weekend.
Hammel was proud of the team’s performance, but couldn’t help but look forward to the rest of the year.
“It was a team effort all weekend,” Hammel said. “The team did a great job maintaining energy and focusing all weekend long. We like to focus on our three qualities as a team: grit, resiliency, and selflessness. If we all stick to these qualities, this season will be really exciting.”
Allen is happy with the start of his tenure as head coach, but he knows the team still has a long way to go this season.
“It was a good opening weekend, but there is always room for improvement for sure,” Allen said.
The wins give the men a 3-0 record, the best start since 2012. The team is out on the diamond again on Friday when they travel to Greenville to play the Panthers in a three-game series.