WESTERVILLE — Wilmington College baseball sophomore Luke Chappie pitched a complete-game and surrendered just a single run to give the Fightin’ Quakers an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) twinbill split at Otterbein University on Saturday afternoon. Wilmington won game one 3-1 and lost game two 12-0 in seven innings.
In game one, both starting pitchers – Chappie and Collin Hoffman – were dealing as each team had just a single runner reach scoring position in the first four innings. The hosts would get a two-out double stranded by a groundout to second base in the fifth, but things got interesting three innings later in the eighth.
Evan Kelsey got the top half of the inning started with a lead-off double down the right field line and advanced to third on Mac Davis’s sacrifice bunt. The go-ahead run would stay 90 feet from home plate, however as Hoffmann ended the inning with consecutive strikeouts. The Cardinals responded by making the Quakers pay for an error to begin the bottom half of the inning. After a sacrifice moved the runner into scoring position, an RBI-single from Ryan Mitchell scored the game’s first run.
Wilmington put its rally caps on in the ninth, and Jesse Reliford got things going with a one-out double to right field, and Caleb Scott advanced Reliford to third with a single. Travis Burson relieved Hoffmann and couldn’t hold the lead as Aaron Burns tied the game with an RBI-double. A groundout scored Scott from third to give the Quakers the lead, and Kelsey singled home Burns to give the visitors an insurance run.
Otterbein would get the tying run to the plate, but Chappie capped off his complete-game win with a strikeout looking.
Chappie struck out five Cardinals and scattered seven hits and two walks across the nine innings. Hoffmann also pitched admirably despite taking the loss as the senior allowed eight hits and two earned runs with six strikeouts in 8.1 innings.
Burns went 3-for-4 for Wilmington with an RBI while Scott and Kelsey also had multi-hit games. Jamie Perebzak had two of Otterbein’s seven hits.
In game two, Otterbein got its revenge, pounding out a dozen hits and scoring multiple runs in each of the first three innings to run away with a victory. All four of Wilmington’s pitchers surrendered multiple runs. Stines took the loss while Jackson Wilson earned the win for Otterbein.
Brayden Carter, Mitchell and Perebzak all had three-hit games for the Cardinals while Tyler Shaneyfelt and Burns had two hits each for the Quakers.
Due to weather and rainy field conditions, Wilmington and Otterbein will conclude their series Monday with a single game beginning at 4:30 p.m.
