FORT MYERS, Fla. — Trailing by two after five innings, the Otterbein baseball team scored eight unanswered run over the final four frames to come away with a 13-7 victory over Illinois Wesleyan on Sunday in the third of its eight-game slate in the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic. Senior
Charlie Greenlief and graduate student
Jamie Perebzak paced the Cardinals' offense with four hits apiece as the latter crossed the 200-hit mark for his career.
The Basics
- Records: Otterbein (4-5 overall), Illinois Wesleyan (3-4 overall)
- Venue: Terry Park Field 3 - Fort Myers, Fla.
Otterbein Stat Leaders
- Greenlief added two RBIs, three runs and one walk to his four hits.
- Perebzak added one RBI and four runs to his four hits, two of which were doubles.
- Senior Logan Ullom tallied three hits, two of which were doubles, to go with two RBIs and two runs.
- Freshman JT Gels posted three hits, including a double, and a team-high four RBIs.
- Senior Zac Taylor finished with two hits, three RBIs and two runs.
- Senior Max McCann added two hits and one run.
- Junior Luke Walter got the pitching start for Otterbein and recorded three strikeouts over the first 3.1 innings. Sophomore Brady Heagen earned the win after pitching 1.2 innings as one of four Cardinal relievers.
Game Highlights
- Otterbein jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning. The first two runs came via an RBI groundout off the bat of Ullom and an IWU error that allowed Taylor to reach base. An RBI single from Gels and RBI groundout from Tyler Biddle accounted for the other two runs.
- Taylor added an RBI single in the top of the second inning, but the Titans responded with a run in the bottom of the frame and three more in the third to get within one, 5-4.
- IWU plated three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 7-5 edge but was held scoreless for the remainder of the game.
- RBI singles from Greenlief and Gels tied the score at 7-7 in the top of the sixth.
- Otterbein took an 8-7 lead on an RBI double from Perebzak in the top of the seventh and plated three more runs in the frame courtesy of an RBI single from Taylor and 2-RBI double from Gels for an 11-7 edge.
- The Cardinals capped the scoring via an RBI double from Ullom and RBI single from Greenlief in the top of the ninth.
- Heagen, graduate student Luke Perigo and senior Noah Gruver combined to allow just three hits and two walks over the final 3.2 innings.
- Otterbein out-hit Illinois Wesleyan by a 19-13 margin. The Cardinals committed four errors to the Titans' three.
Notables
- Named the OAC Player of the Year and CSC Second Team Academic All-America in 2024, Perebzak ranks eighth all-time at Otterbein in hits (203), fourth in doubles (46), 11th in home runs (20) and third in RBIs (171).
- Ullom has 88 hits, 23 doubles and 43 RBIs in his Otterbein career. He has a team-high 16 hits and seven doubles this season. He has hit safely in seven straight games and eight of the nine games this season. Six of those were multi-hit games.
- Taylor has a team-high 11 RBIs on the season.
- McCann has five multi-hit game this season and 13 hits total. He has 54 career hits.
- Head coach George Powell is in his 26th year at Otterbein and has an all-time record of 612-425-1 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.
