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PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Cardinal baseball team finished off its regular-season campaign with a pair of games against nationally-ranked teams Sunday afternoon, defeating 17th-ranked Frostburg State University before narrowly falling to host La Roche College.

Otterbein took down Frostburg State, 3-1, to begin the day and then settled for a tough 2-1 loss in the final outing against the Redhawks, who are currently ranked first in the region. The Cards finish their regular-season with a 31-9 record, the best in program history in terms of both number of wins and percentage (.775).

Capping off the day was Otterbein winning the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) regular-season championship outright as a result of second-place Baldwin Wallace dropping the second game of a doubleheader at Muskingum. It is Otterbein's first regular-season crown since 2006.

The Cardinals got an impressive pitching performance from senior Ben Hamilton against Frostburg State (30-12), watching the right-hander allow just four hits and one run in a complete-game effort. He fanned seven batters and walked just one.

Otterbein held an early 1-0 lead after an RBI-single from cleanup hitter Jake Simmerman in the first, but the Bobcats evened the score with a run of their own in the bottom of frame. The difference-making stretch came in the fourth, when freshman shortstop Ben Beachy ripped an RBI-double to score Christian Chiero before ultimately crossing the plate himself on an infield error.

Centerfielder Tyler Kent, an OAC Player of the Year candidate, went 2 for 5 against Frostburg while seven other Cardinals tallied a hit.

Otterbein quickly got back on the diamond for another tightly-contested battle against La Roche, falling behind 1-0 after the Redhawks (32-8) scored on a bunt-single in the second inning. The Cards appeared to have tied the game in the fourth when Simmerman hustled home on a passed ball and seemed to beat a throw from the backstop, but was unfortunately called out instead and the game remained 1-0.

La Roche widened its advantage to 2-0 with an RBI-double in the fifth before the Cardinals posted their only run of the game in the following inning, getting Kent's OAC-leading tenth home run of the year down the left-field line to slice the deficit in half.

Otterbein would be unable to manufacture the tying run, advancing pinch-runner Tyler Thompson to second base in the ninth, after a balk, before the effort would stall.

Left-hander Stevie Yuran had to take the loss on the mound despite a solid outing, allowing just one earned run and four hits over seven innings before being relieved by freshman Jaryd Murphy, who tossed a scoreless eighth.

Kent's round-tripper moved him to 203 hits for his career and now nine shy of tying Otterbein's all-time record.

Otterbein will host the four-team OAC Tournament beginning on Thursday, opening against fourth-seeded John Carroll. Marietta earned the No. 2 seed as a result of holding a tiebreaker with Baldwin Wallace, who will assume the third seed. Stay tuned for full tournament schedule and start times.