Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The No. 20-ranked Otterbein baseball team walked away from Fishbaugh Field Sunday afternoon with a doubleheader split against Baldwin Wallace University, overcoming a narrow loss in the opening to claim victory in game two.

The Cardinals, now 16-5 on the season and 3-1 within the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC), will travel to Manchester University on Tuesday for a mid-week game before hosting cross-town Capital University next weekend to resume league play.

Game 1 (5-4 Loss)

Baldwin Wallace emerged with a 5-4 win in the opening matchup of the afternoon, a game that was similar to last year's OAC Tournament showdown in which the Yellow Jackets pulled out a 7-6 result in 11 innings.

Otterbein, which scored three first-inning runs in that recent 2016 affair, followed the same script with three runs in its first at-bat this time around after a solo homer from Pat Birrer, a sac fly from Christian Chiero and then Stephan Hernon scoring on a wild pitch.

Baldwin Wallace (13-7, 2-4 OAC) then had a big third inning like last season, taking advantage of a few Cardinal miscues in the field and ultimately crossing five runs (four unearned) to jump ahead. Otterbein sliced the deficit in half with an RBI-groundout from Chiero in the bottom of the frame, and then neither team would score over the final six innings.

The Cards had baserunners in the fourth through eighth innings, including a runner on third in the eighth, but were unable to draw even as BW starter Evan Lovick went the distance for a complete-game victory. He struck out six and walked just one, improving to 4-1 on the year.

Otterbein had five players record multi-hit games and starting pitcher Craig Prince was forced to absorb the loss despite just one earned run and eight strikeouts over his six innings on the bump.

 
Game 2 (7-4 Win)

The rematch featured scoring in just three innings, with the Cardinals vaulting to a 4-0 lead in the third frame following an RBI-single from Bryan Stopar, a sac fly from Hernon and a timely two-out, two-RBI single from Tim Snyder.

Otterbein starter Stevie Yuran was cruising until some trouble in the sixth inning, when BW eventually ended up with three runs after an RBI groundout followed by a pair of two-out singles. Yuran recovered to keep the Yellow Jackets off the scoreboard in the seventh and then exited, improving to 5-1 on the season and tying atop the OAC in wins.

Baldwin Wallace trimmed the gap to 5-4 in the eighth inning, but Otterbein quickly responded with a nice two-out rally in the ninth that  began with nine-hole hitter Mitch Stotler drawing a walk. Birrer and Stopar ultimately delivered RBI-singles that provided a pair of insurance runs.

Senior Caleb Norton tossed the final two innings, battling back from facing six BW hitters in the eighth to needing just a handful of pitches for a perfect ninth. He now has five saves on the season.

Ben Beachy, Birrer, Stopar and Hernon, the top-four hitters in Otterbein's lineup, all finished the second outing with two hits as the Cards tallied 11 in both games.