Box Score
MARIETTA, Ohio – A walk-off three-run homer from University of Mount Union pinch hitter Jeff Bennett handed the Cardinal baseball team a 4-2 loss Friday afternoon on day two of the double-elimination Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament.
Otterbein University, the tournament’s fourth seed, will face off against the winner of Marietta College and John Carroll University in an elimination game Saturday as a result of a weather delay.
The game remained scoreless through the first three innings, with each team mustering just one hit. Junior right-fielder Thomas Linder helped get Otterbein on the scoreboard in the fourth, delivering a two-out RBI single that brought home shortstop Sean Kettering.
Mount Union put two runners on with just one out in the fifth, but senior right-hander Wes Meadows worked out of the jam and left unscathed.
Meadows and Kettering led off the sixth frame with back-to-back hits, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Unfortunately, the inning would end after a hard-hit grounder from Nich Pitzer ricocheted off the Mount Union second baseman and into the arms of shortstop Lee Grosscup, who stepped on second and relayed to first for the double play.
The Raiders threatened again in the bottom of the sixth, but Meadows got Mount Union’s leading hitter, Anthony Morino, to ground out and leave runners on second and third.
Mount Union cut its deficit in half with a run in the seventh, and Cardinal senior Dominic Porretta came on in the eighth in relief of Meadows, who allowed just the one run while striking out six over seven innings of work.
A diving catch on the warning track from Billy Harkenrider helped Porretta retire three-straight in the eighth, but Bennett ended the game in the ninth with his first home run of the season.
The Raiders got the leadoff hitter on to start the inning, and Porretta slipped while fielding a bunt from the next batter as the go-ahead run reached first.
Porretta caught a sacrifice bunt attempt from Mitchell Lake for out one, but Bennett delivered the blast moments later.
Harkenrider went 2 for 4 at the plate for Otterbein, while Meadows went 1 for 3 to reach 209 career hits and tie Tory Allen for the most all-time in Otterbein history.
