FORT MYERS, Fla. — The Otterbein baseball team notched a 5-1 victory over Baruch (N.Y.) on Saturday in the second of its eight-game slate in the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic. Freshmen Maverick Rabe and Daniel Uhl led the way for the Cardinals on the mound and at the plate, respectively.

The Basics

• Records: Otterbein (3-5 overall), Baruch (1-5 overall)
• Venue: Terry Park Field 2 - Fort Myers, Fla.

Otterbein Stat Leaders

• Rabe got the pitching start for the Cardinals and allowed just one run on four hits and three walks while recording five strikeouts over eight innings to earn the win on the mound.
• Uhl tallied two hits - a home run and a double - to go with two RBIs and one run.
• Senior Tyler Biddle posted two hits, including a double, and two RBIs.
• Graduate student Jamie Perebzak finished with two hits, including a double.
• Senior Zac Taylor tallied one hit, one RBI and one run.
• Senior Logan Ullom added a double and a run.
• Senior Charlie Greenlief and freshman JT Gels posted matching stat lines of one hit and one run.

Game Highlights

• Offense was hard to come by through the first five innings, as each team notched just two hits.
• Ullom hit a leadoff double in the top of the sixth inning but was thrown out at third trying to stretch it to a triple. Greenlief followed with a single, and the Cardinals later loaded the bases via a single from Gels and walk to Biddle with two outs. But the Bearcats got out of the inning after a pitching change.
• Rabe pitched 1-2-3 innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh.
• The Cardinals broke the scoreless tie courtesy of a leadoff home run to left field from Uhl in the top of the seventh inning. Perebzak added a one-out double that was followed by a walk to Ullom, but Baruch induced two straight groundouts to keep the deficit at one.
• Otterbein plated another run in the top of the eighth after Gels led off and reached base on a hit-by-pitch. Gels advanced to second on a sacrifice from Biddle and scored on a two-out double from Uhl to put the Cardinals up 2-0.
• Baruch cut that deficit in half, scoring on an RBI groundout in the bottom of the eighth.
• The Cardinals stretched their lead in the top of the ninth with one out. After Ullom was hit by a pitch, Greenlief walked, and Taylor followed with an RBI single. Biddle later added a two-out, 2-RBI double for a 5-1 Otterbein lead.
• The Bearcats led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and a walk before Rabe was replaced on the mound by freshman Andrew Kitts, who closed out the Otterbein victory by inducing a double play and a strikeout.
• Otterbein out-hit Baruch by a 10-4 margin. The Cardinals committed one error to the Bearcats' none.

Notables 

• Named the OAC Player of the Year and CSC Second Team Academic All-America in 2024, Perebzak ranks ninth all-time at Otterbein in hits (199), fourth in doubles (44), 11th in home runs (20) and third in RBIs (170).
• Ullom has 85 hits, 21 doubles and 41 RBIs in his Otterbein career. He has a team-high 13 hits and five doubles this season. He has hit safely in six straight games and seven of the eight games this season. Five of those were multi-hit games.
• Uhl's home run was the first of his career.
• Head coach George Powell is in his 26th year at Otterbein and has an all-time record of 611-425-1 at the helm of the Cardinals. He is a six-time OAC Coach of the Year honoree and has coached the Cardinals to three OAC regular-season championships and six OAC Tournament titles.