WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Otterbein baseball team worked through a pair of frustrating results on the road Wednesday afternoon, although beefing the strength of schedule by adding a non-conference doubleheader against PAC leader Washington & Jefferson at Ross Memorial Park.

W&J, now 27-11 this year and a league best 15-3 in the Presidents Athletic Conference, emerged over the Cardinals by scores of 6-1 and 9-1 as both teams compete through the final week of their regular seasons.

Otterbein drops back to 25-12 overall despite both games being more competitive than what the final margins said, but still controls its destiny for the No. 2 seed in next week's Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament. The Cardinals (11-5 OAC) will play a culminating league doubleheader this weekend at Wilmington.

GAME ONE BREAKDOWN:

• The opener was formatted as a seven-inning contest, and the Presidents crossed a few early runs of Otterbein pitcher Grady Kehr to begin. W&J led 3-0 into the fourth until the Cards hit the board after a one-out double from Brayden Quincel… and eventual sac fly (with the bases loaded) from Logan Ullom.
   
• But the hosts manufactured with two more in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a hit by pitch, walk, sac bunt, single and then defensive miscue by Otterbein.
   
• The Cards mustered just one hit the remainder of the way, a double by Gavin Thompson in the sixth, but would not be able to mount a climb back.
   
• Four Washington & Jefferson players had multi-hit showings in the game, accounting for all but one of the team's nine hits.

GAME TWO BREAKDOWN:

• A low-scoring second affair watched pitchers Luke Walter and Alex Tomsic battle into the middle frames, where W&J only led 1-0 midway through the fifth.
   
• The Presidents, coming off an NCAA trip in which they were eliminated by future World Series qualifier Misericordia, then crossed a pair on the bottom of the fifth.
   
• Otterbein implemented a much different starting lineup than usual in the rematch, allowing multiple players to see chances and looks across the diamond. They got a run back in the seventh after Nicolas Vertikoff drew a leadoff walk, Haruki Tada moved the ball and then Vertilkoff eventually came around to score on a sac fly from Adam Folk.
   
• The Cardinals felt primed to draw closer in that frame until Jake Brown unfortunately lined into a double player after getting a piece.
   
• W&J took advantage of the energy and busted things open in the bottom portion, smacking five hits and creating too much separation.
   
• Walter allowed just one run over nearly four innings while Jake Carfangia tossed a scoreless frame of relief.

IT'S THE WEEKEND:

The Cards are slated to play a doubleheader (1 and 4 p.m.) at Wilmington on Saturday before hosting a 40th/final regular season game back home on Sunday against OWU, marking a rubber match between the nearby schools this spring.

Stay tuned to otterbeincardinals.com and all of our social media outlets for continued updates!