Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein baseball team tallied a doubleheader split with 16th-ranked Baldwin Wallace University Monday afternoon, falling 12-3 before rebounding with a 7-3 victory in game two at Fishbaugh Field.

The Cardinals (15-5, 4-2 OAC) held a 2-1 lead in the first affair, but fell victim to a seven-running fourth inning from Baldwin Wallace that was highlighted by a three-run homer from Hunter Mandel.

 

Mandel added his second home run of the game in the sixth inning, and Otterbein would be unable to recover as BW hurler Logan Heffernan went eight strong innings on the mound. He allowed just two runs, both unearned, and struck out eight batters in improving to 3-0 on the season.

Shorstop Sean Kettering, first baseman Jake Simmerman and right-fielder Pat Birrer, who entered as a defensive replacement in the seventh inning, all tallied two-hit games despite the loss.

Otterbein bounced back in game two, opening a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third thanks to an RBI-single from Kettering followed by a 2-run shot over the right-field fence from Simmerman, his fifth of the year.

The Yellow Jackets (14-5, 2-4 OAC) cut the lead to 3-2 in the next at-bat with Handel's third long ball of the day, but answered with an RBI-single from Nich Pitzer in the bottom of the frame to double the lead.

Otterbein would add another run in the fifth and sixth inning before getting a solo home run off the bat of centerfielder Tyler Kent in the seventh to push the margin up to 7-3. The cushion was plenty for a solid Otterbein bullpen, who got solid innings from Terrell Dorsey, K.C. Brown and Caleb Norton to finish off the day.

Senior Taylor Ellis improved to 2-0 on the hill as the starting pitching, striking out four batters and allowing just three runs over his five innings of work. He scattered only six hits and walked two.

Simmerman and Pitzer each had three-hit games in the second outing while freshman Sam Severance, making his first career-start, had a 2 for 3 day and scored a run. He also reached base once on a walk.

Otterbein is slated to play a pair of road OAC doubleheaders later this week, traveling to No. 23 Ohio Northern on Wednesday before a weekend twinbill at John Carroll. Those games have the potential to be postponed and rescheduled due to incoming weather.