Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 ALLIANCE – Mount Union's baseball team rallied to salvage a split with Heidelberg, losing game one 12-6 and winning game two 6-4, in an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader Sunday at Rafeld-Rogers Field.
It marked the first two games on the new turf artificial infield that was dedicated in October of 2019.
In game one, Mount Union centerfielder Zack Mazza (Flint, Mich. / Powers Catholic) hit a pair of solo runs as he had three hits and right fielder Eric Schilling (Stow / Stow-Munroe Falls) had a home run and drove in three runs on two hits but the rest of the offense produced only one more hit in a 12-6 defeat.
Heidelberg chased starter Ryan Osman (Pittsburgh, Pa. / Moon) with nine hits and eight runs in 2.1 innings as the Student Princes belted out a total of 12 runs on 16 hits. Jake Vanek and Stephen Currie each had home runs and drove in three runs and Seth Scoville also had a home run to lead Heidelberg at the plate. Ryan Hackworth allowed two runs on five hits to move to 2-0 on the season.
The nightcap was scoreless through the first five innings before Heidelberg pushed one across in the fifth and two more in the seventh to take a 3-0 lead.
Mount Union loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the seventh with two outs when Schilling hit his second home run of the day – a grand slam -- to give the Purple Raiders a 4-3 lead.
Mount Union got some insurance in the bottom of the eighth on a Mazza RBI single and a Walker Marlowe (Berlin Center / Western Reserve) sacrifice fly RBI.
Dwayne Sumler (Indianapolis, Ind. / Warren Central) started on the mound for the Raiders gave up two runs over the first six innings with seven strikeouts, before giving way to Colin Skufka (Wooster), went the final three innings and allowed two runs including a run in the ninth to get the win.
Cameron Deemer took the loss in relief for Heidelberg.
With the split, the Purple Raiders are now 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the OAC while Heidelberg is 4-4 overall and 1-3 in the OAC.
Mount Union next weekend plays its four-game conference set with Otterbein hosting the Cardinals Saturday at 1 p.m. before playing Sunday at 1 p.m. in Westerville.
