From staff reports

TIFFIN — Marietta College’s baseball Pioneers avenged a regular season doubleheader loss to the Otterbein Cardinals with a 5-2 victory Thursday in the first round of the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament.

The Pioneers (22-18) will try for the upper hand in the tournament today in a 9:30 a.m. game against Heidelberg (34-7), which won its 11th straight game by downing Mount Union 10-7. The Cards (25-14) play Mount Union (20-17) at 12:30 p.m. and the winner takes on the Marietta-Heidelberg loser at 4 p.m.

Marietta beat Heidelberg 3-2 and 10-6 March 23 at Don Schaly Stadium.

Pioneer junior righthander T. J. Knowlton, 9-2 for the season, throttled Otterbein’s powerful attack with only two runs, none earned, in 7.1 innings.