’Etta Express beats Cards
MC to play Heidelberg in OAC winners’ bracket game today
POSTED: May 9, 2008
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. Junior lefty Chris Stewart picked up his third save with hitless, scoreless work to finish up, inducing a huge double play when he took over on the mound in the eighth with two aboard, one out, and a run across.
MC’s pitching twosome was backed by some good defense, particularly by center fielder Justin Merryman for Knowlton. Merryman, MC’s ace bat with a .422 average, also contributed a single and two-run double in a 13-hit Pioneer attack against two-tme OAC Pitcher of the Year Dan Remenowsky who hurled the distance.
“Defense is always key in a game like this,” said Knowlton, who blanked the Cards on two hits in last year’s Mideast Regional.
“Merryman made a a couple of really nice plays out there for me,” Knowlton said. “He’s been getting me out of jams all year. The defense really played well. The double plays really helped out a couple of innings.”
Remenowsky, a senior, had been 4-0 in five starts against the Pioneers since losing his debut against the ‘Express in his sophomore campaign. Most of the time MC has hit him well — four times with double-figure hits, including 10 hits and five earned runs in his complete game at Don Schaly Stadium earlier this season.
“We know he’s a tough pitcher, so we just wanted to get in there and have good at bats every time,” said Merryman who has a team-best 10-game hitting streak.
“He’s probably the hardest thrower in the league,” Merryman said. “He and T. J. (Knowlton) are probably the top two pitchers in the league. We knew we were going to be in for a fight. T. J. kept us in the game and we got some runs in the clutch.”
Britt Meador had a double and two singles to boost his average to .405 and Danny Jones and Matt DeSico had two singles each to go with Merryman’s two hits in the Pioneers’ offense.
Marietta could have had a much better run production but left 12 runners stranded, including the bases loaded twice.
The Pioneers scored all their runs with two out and took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Jones singled and Meador doubled, sending Jones to third, after the first two Pioneers whiffed. Then Merryman pulled a double down the right field line to score a pair.
Otterbein made it 2-1 in the fourth on an error, groundout, and Aaron Huchison’s sacrifice fly.
The Cardinals put the first two hitters on base in the sixth with Brian Hiscox and Dan Lassak’s singles but Knowlton got a strikeout and a double play to preserve the lead.
The Pioneers increased the score to 4-1 in the seventh. Meador led off with a single and Merryman followed with a bunt single. Cameron Cimino drove in Meador with a single and Merryman raced to third and tallied on Dom Winters’ single.
Otterbein punched across a run in the eighth to pull within 4-2 as Chris Kovanda opened with a single, advanced to second on an error, and scored on Carl Edwards’ single. Lassak followed with a single and then Stewart took over for Knowlton and killed the rally by getting a ground-ball double play, second baseman Tony Piconke to Winters.
MC scored in the bottom of the eighth. Jones and Meador hit back-to-back singles with one out, Cimino walked with two out to load the bases and Winters walked to force in the run.
Marietta 5, Otterbein 2
Otterbein 000 100 010 - 2-8-0
Marietta 020 000 21x - 5-13-2
Top hitters: Otterbein - Charlie Edwards 2-3, RBI; Dan Lassak 2-4. Marietta - Britt Meador 3-5, 2B; Justin Merryman 2-4, 2B, 2 RBIs; Matt DesSico 2-5; Danny Jones 2-3; Dom Winters 1-3, 2 RBIs; Cameron Cimino 1-3, RBI.
Pitching: Otterbein - Dan Remenowsky (L, 5-2) 8ip, 13h, 5r, 5er, 6w, 7so. Marietta - T. J. Knowlton (W, 9-2) 7.1ip, 8h, 2r, 0er, 1w, 4so; Chris Stewart (S, 3) 1.2ip, 0h, 0r, 0w, 0so.
Heidelberg 10, Mount Union 7
MUC 320 010 100 — 7-15-4
HC 101 010 52x — 10-12-3
Top hitters: Mount Union - Greg Ferrell 3-5, 2B, 2RBIs; Cory Slaybaugh 2-4, 2B, RBI; Nate McFarland 2-5, 2B; Grant Sevek 3-5, 2B, RBI; Connor Nell 1-3, 2 RBIs. Heidelberg - Jeremy Wentworth 3-4; Andrew Buelow 2-4, RBI; Gar Keen 2-5, RBI; Jason Lash 1-4, 2B, 3 RBIs; Matt Grassley 2-5, RBI; Biagio Boytim 1-3, 2 RBIs.
Pitching: Mount Union - Paul Mariotti 6.2ip, 9h, 7r, 3er, 1w, 3so; Erik Miller (L, 3-4) 0.2ip, 2h, 1r, 0er, 0w, 0so; Brad Griffith 0.2ip, 1h, 2r, 2er, 2w, 0so. Heidelberg - Andrew McFarland 5.2ip, 13h, 6r, 4er, 1w, 1so; Andy Lowe (W, 4-0) 3.1ip, 2h, 1r, 1er, 1w, 3so.
