Marietta College’s Nick Bonnizzio takes a swing during a game against Otterbein during Wednesday’s doubleheader at Don and Sue Schaly Field at Pioneer Park. (Photo by Rebecca Wheeler)

The Marietta College Pioneers snapped a 10-game losing streak Wednesday in grand fashion with a double header sweep over the Otterbein Cardinals at Don and Sue Schaly Field at Pioneer Park.

The Etta Express downed Otterbein in the opener 5-3 and then walked them off in the night cap with a thrilling 7-6 win.

The wins were a long time coming for Pioneer head coach Brian Brewer and his team.

“We feel like our backs are up against it and for us to stick together as a group, we’ve got to win them all,” said Brewer. “I felt like we played with a little bit of urgency and it was great to get a couple of conference wins.”

The Pioneers collected just five base hits in the opener but made the most of them as they jumped out to an early 4-0 lead and then relied on the pitching of starter Zach Marzetz and reliever Forrest Havanis to secure their first Ohio Athletic Conference win of the season.

Marietta scored an unearned run in the first inning and then got a big three-run home run by center fielder Jeremy Tonelli in the bottom of the second to open up their lead.

Marzetz allowed single runs to Otterbein in the third, fourth and fifth inning to allow them to close within a run before the Pioneers tacked on a huge insurance run in the bottom of the fifth.

First baseman Nick Bonnizzio hammered a solo home run off of Cardinal starting pitcher Luke Walter to make it a 5-3 game.

“I thought we swung it as good as we had swung it in two weeks,” said Brewer. “We still didn’t swing it great but it was better.”

Marzetz was solid as the Pioneer senior righty scattered eight base hits and allowed a pair of unearned runs in his six innings on the bump.

Brewer turned the ball over to another senior in Havanis to begin the seventh and he proceeded to toss three innings of scoreless relief to nail down the save and bring an end to the Pioneers futility.

“Minus some miscues defensively I thought we played pretty well,” said Brewer. “Zach (Marzetz) competed his tail off and Forrest (Havanis) did a nice job for us on the back end and it was just a good solid win that we really needed.”

Marietta would have to play catch up in a hurry in the night cap as Otterbein jumped on Pioneer starter Reece Rupert for a pair of runs in the opening inning.

Left Fielder Zac Taylor doubled to begin the game and one out later came into score when right fielder Nolan James blasted a long home run just under the scoreboard in left field for a 2-0 Otterbein lead.

The Pioneers answered with a pair of their own in their first at-bat off of Otterbein starter Bryson Bell as they got RBI singles by Bonnizzio and Cael Magill to tie things up at 2-2.

Marietta added four more in the bottom of the second, three of them coming on a three-run homer off the bat of Bonnizzio, his second bomb of the twinbill.

After Bonnizzio’s blast Magill doubled and came around to score on a run-scoring hit by Cole Rieman to increase the Pioneer lead to 6-2.

That would be the last run the Pioneers would score until the final frame and the Cardinals began to chip away at the lead.

After Rupert had blanked the Cards in the second and third innings they got to him in the fourth when James connected once again this time an opposite field home run to right field to trim the lead to 6-3.

Rupert would turn things over to sophomore Brennan Stobbs to begin the fifth inning and Stobbs did his job by tossing three scoreless innings of relief to keep the lead at three heading into the final two innings.

The Pioneers committed a total of six errors in the two games and one in the top of the eighth would play a part in the Cardinals coming off the mat and tying the game up.

Cardinal catcher Logan Ullom started the inning with a single off of the Pioneers third pitcher of the game Cooper Fiehrer.

Fiehrer then got James to ground into what well could have been a double play but second baseman Diego DeCello was unable to field the ball cleanly allowing all hands to reach safely.

Charlie Greenlief was hit by a pitch to load the bases and third baseman Jake Brown singled to left field to score two runners.

Brown advanced to third on a great diving defensive play by Bonnizzio at first base to temporarily save a run.

It looked like Fiehrer might just be able to work himself out of the jam but a wild pitch would allow Brown to score the tying run.

Zach Madan came on in relief and retired the final batter of the inning to keep the score knotted at 6-6.

The Pioneers went down in their half of the eighth and freshman Evan Wilson became the fifth Pioneer pitcher of the game and kept the Cards off

the board in the top of the ninth paving the way for some Pioneer ninth inning magic.

The inning started innocently enough for the Etta Express as the first two hitters were retired before Rieman kept things alive by beating out a bunt single.

The Pioneers were handed a huge gift when an infield pop up off the bat of DeCello was dropped by the Cardinals to give MC new life.

Pinch hitter Shane Rothlisberger entered the game and worked a walk from Otterbein reliever Brady Heagen to load the bases with Pioneers.

Heagen had already notched three victories in relief this season but his fate would be different as light rains began to fall.

Pioneer sophomore Drew McKenna had entered the game late and made his first at bat of the game count in a huge way when he lined a single to left field to score Rieman with the winning run.

“Good teams win games late and we haven’t been on the right side of that much this year,” said Brewer. “It’s good to see and it’s hopefully something we can build on and just continue to get better moving forward.” The wins were huge as the Pioneers attempt to salvage their season with Community Day coming up Saturday with a twin bill with Wilmington on the agenda.

“We will take all the breaks we can get at this point cause we need them,” said Brewer. “We made the most of it tonight and this was a really good sweep for us for sure.”