WILMINGTON, Ohio – Tyler Shaneyfelt stole home in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday to give Wilmington College a dramatic 6-5 win over Bluffton at Tewksbury-Delaney Field.
Mac Davis, who had the Fightin’ Quakers’ best pitching marks entering the game, left after two walks and a hit batter. GlenAllen Anderson entered the game but Bluffton took a 2-0 lead.
The Quakers got a run back in the bottom of the first on an RBI-single from Caleb Scott. Bluffton made it 3-1 in the fourth inning. It was 5-1 Bluffton going to the sixth inning. Kaleb Stines relieved Anderson and gave up four hits and one run over four innings.
The Quakers began to chip away at the deficit as Dominic Depa, the reigning Ohio Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week, scored Jesse Reliford on a sacrifice fly in the sixth. In the seventh, Scott doubled home Owen Baumann and Evan Kelsey to get WC within a single run at 5-4.
Another 1-2-3 inning from Stines in the eighth setup a Baumann RBI-single to tie the game the bottom half. The Quakers couldn’t deliver with the bases loaded, however, and the game went into the ninth tied 5-5.
Reliford came in to pitch and stranded a runner with a strikeout looking. In the bottom of the ninth, the script flipped as it was Wilmington who loaded the bases with no outs. A foul out and strikeout looking followed, however, and Bluffton was one out away from forcing extra innings. Shaneyfelt had other ideas and, after almost getting caught in a pickle, the sophomore beat the throw to home for the walk-off steal.
Reliford earned the win, striking out two Beavers in the ninth, though the work of Anderson and Stines in relief kept things close.
Offensively, Scott finished 4-of-5 with three RBIs while Kelsey and Baumann had two hits each for Wilmington.
Wilmington (5-2) heads to Earlham College for a three-game Quaker Bowl Rivalry series this weekend.
