WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein baseball team took care of business in a home conference doubleheader Tuesday at Fishbaugh Field, sweeping Wilmington College by scores of 11-2 and 10-8 on a perfect sunny day.

The Cardinals, improving to 6-2 within the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) schedule, received another strong pitching effort from freshman Travis Engard in the opener before scoring 10 early runs in the rematch and holding on.


Game 1:

Wilmington (6-19, 2-6 OAC) took an early lead in the third inning of the day until it became all Otterbein from there on out. The Cards proceeded to score at least once in their next six at-bats, beginning with a two-run homer from Matthew Gibson over the right-field fence.

Otterbein casually added runs in the middle innings until four insurance runs in the eighth, punctuated by a 405-foot three-run blast to straightaway center from clean-up man Luke Barber.

Third Baseman Connor Brett (3 for 5) continued his strong display at the plate while Gibson, Barber, Ben Beachy and Sam Edgell all enjoyed multi-hit games as well. Engard cruised to another seven-inning start, allowing just one run while striking out four an not issuing any free bases. He improves to 3-1 on the bump this spring.
 

Game 2:

Wilmington opened nicely with four runs in its first plate appearance, but Otterbein countered right back in the bottom half with four as well. The Cards found nice breathing room with six more runs in the second inning, getting a moonshot homer run down the left-field line from Beachy followed by RBI doubles from Barber and Snyder.

The Quakers got one run back in the next frame and that 10-5 score remained the same for a decent while as Otterbein missed some chances during the middle portion. Otterbein had runners on in almost every inning, including bases loaded with nobody out in the fifth, but oddly came up empty across a variety of sequences.

Wilmington applied pressure late, scoring twice in the sixth and staying the course to get the tying run on second base in the ninth. Collin Hoffmann was ultimately able to induce a foul-out to catcher Adam Stotler behind the plate, preserving the sweep and recording his sixth save this season.

Five Cardinals posted two hits each in the contest with Snyder driving in three runs himself. He remains the team leader in batting average (.388), RBI (26) and on-base percentage (.432).

Freshman lefty Zach Beatty earned a victory out of the pen as the most effective reliever, tossing two clean innings while striking out a pair.
 

Up Next:

Otterbein will be back in action Thursday at No. 7-ranked Wooster before hosting Capital in a weekend doubleheader Saturday afternoon. President Dr. John Comerford will throw out the first pitch after getting inaugurated Friday on campus.