The DePauw baseball team officially ended its season with an overall record of 19-21 and a record of 6-6 in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
The Tigers played two doubleheaders this weekend, facing Washington University in St. Louis at home on Saturday and University of Chicago away on Sunday.
"It seemed like everything finally came together," junior Alex Wright said. "If people struggled, there were other guys there ready to pick them up. We knew there was no pressure, so we could just go out and have fun, which is something we haven't done every game this year."
The Tigers' first game against Washington lasted 11 innings, with junior Rob McPike's RBI single lifting DePauw to a 14-13 win, but the Bears rallied for a 6-4 win in the nightcap.
Junior Sam Swafford led off the 11th in the with a single and moved to second on freshman Ryan Heeb's sacrifice bunt. Swafford then advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on McPike's two-out single to right.
DePauw totaled 14 hits led by McPike's four and two each from sophomore Jason Cohen and junior Alex Berlyn. Cohen drove in four in the win. Junior pitcher Hobs Donovan improved to 6-4 with five innings of relief work.
In the nightcap, freshmen Pat Lyons and Robbie Stein had four of DePauw's seven hits while the Bears had 14 hits total.
On Sunday, Chicago took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the opener with a bases-loaded walk before the Tigers scored three in the second on a two-run single by Berlyn and McPike's RBI double.
DePauw extended the lead to 6-1 in the fifth as Wright drove in junior in-fielder Chris Forbringer with a sacrifice fly and Stein drove in a pair with double. Chicago evened the score in the bottom of the fifth with five runs, one of which was earned due to DePauw errors.
McPike's sacrifice fly in the sixth scored freshman catcher Brandon Dountz before the Tigers wrapped up the scoring in the seventh on freshman Brendon Pashia's two run single and Berlyn's sacrifice fly leading the Tigers to win 10-6.
In the nightcap, DePauw took a 1-0 lead in the opening inning of the second game as freshman Zach Starr's single plated Lyons. They made it 3-0 in the second on freshman Paul Mpistolrides' two-run single. The Maroons evened the score in the bottom of the second.
Cohen's two-run double in the third gave DePauw a 5-3 lead before Starr scored in the same inning on a wild pitch. Chicago countered with two in the bottom of the third on back-to-back run-scoring singles by Zach Osman and Jon Chua. The Maroons took a 7-6 advantage in the fourth on Williams' two-run homer.
DePauw regained the lead in the sixth as Heeb plated Lyons with a bases loaded walk and sophomore Sam Yeary followed with an RBI single, which scored freshman JB McCallum. Chicago's Claude Lockhart had a sacrifice fly in the sixth, which scored Jack Cinoman and tied the score at eight apiece.
The game went to extra innings, and Cohen led off the eighth with a triple and scored on Starr's single. Pashia doubled Starr home and scored on Dountz's sacrifice fly. Chicago scored one in the eighth on Brett Huff's double, but finally lost 11-9.
At the season's end, McPike said he wishes they could have played better overall.
"We saw some good things throughout the year, which gives us high hopes for next year," McPike said. "But next year we are going to have to play like we know how to play and bring it all together."
The teams' juniors are feeling strange, with only one year left at DePauw.
"One year left of college seems weird," Wright said. "I've been playing baseball since I was 6 years old."
Wright hopes that each of the teams members will work as hard as they can during his senior year.
This is DePauw's last year in the SCAC, as the team will start fresh next year in the North Coast Athletic Conference.