(ALLIANCE, OH)--Mount Union's baseball team rallied from a 7-1
deficit in game two to pull out a 9-7 win and along with an 11-2 in
game one swept Baldwin-Wallace in an Ohio Athletic Conference
series Wednesday at 23rd Street Field in Alliance.
The sweep evens the Purple Raiders record in OAC play at 4-4 and
elevates their overall mark to 13-10, while Baldwin-Wallace falls
to 7-14 overall and 2-4 in the OAC.
After a fielding error in the fifth inning led to three unearned
B-W runs and Mount Union found itself down 7-1.
The Raiders rallied in bottom of fifth taking advantage of four
walks, a hit batter and a B-W error in the field to plate four runs
to make the score 7-5 and get back into the game.
Matt Tracy (Pittsburgh/Central Catholic) started the sixth inning
with a single, his fourth hit of the game, and later scored on a
Britt Williams (Massillon/Massillon Jackson) ground out to bring
the score to 7-6 in the sixth inning.
The Raiders got going again in the seventh as Michael Griffith
(Louisville/East Canton) opened the frame with a single before Greg Ferrell (Uniontown/Green) drove him home on a double to tie the
game. Ferrell then scored the go ahead run a single from
Connor Nell (Powell/Olentangy).
Bobby Huth (Massillon/Massillon Washington) drove in Williams for
an insurance run in the eighth inning.
Beau Smith (Fredrick, MD/Fredrick) allowed just two hits in 3.1
innings of relief work to pick up his third win of the season, Cody Colly (Massillon/Massillon Washington) worked the ninth for his
first save of the season. Matt Lambert (Massillon/Massillon
Washington) started the game and surrendered seven runs (three
earned) over 4.2 innings.
In the opener, Paul Mariotti (Copley/Copley) scattered seven hits
over six innings to lead Mount Union to an 11-2 win.
Mariotti, who started the season coming back from off-season arm
surgery, is now 3-0 with a save in his last four starts.
Mount Union pounded out 15 hits and scored runs in four of its six
at-bats. The Raiders blew the game open with a six-run sixth
inning with a big hit coming in the form of a three-run home run
from Ferrell.
It was his team-leading seventh homer of the year, while Williams,
Griffith and Huth each drove in two runs to lead Mount Union at the
plate.
Mount Union now starts a six-game road swing that includes OAC
doubleheaders Saturday at 1 pm at Otterbein and next Wednesday at
John Carroll (1 pm) in between a non-conference doubleheader at
LaRoche (PA) Sunday at 1 pm in Pittsburgh, PA.