The Baldwin-Wallace College baseball team was swept by Marietta College on Saturday and dropped out of contention for an Ohio Athletic Conference playoff spot.
The Yellow Jackets put themselves in position to win both games, but they couldn’t keep Marietta from scoring the insurance runs that made the difference in both losses. After falling behind 4–0 in the first game, they had pulled to within a run before the Pioneers scored again in the top of the last inning. The Jackets got the run back in the bottom half of the inning and had the bases loaded with one out, but they couldn’t push the deciding runs across the plate and lost 5–4.
In game two, the Jackets came back from an 8–3 deficit and again cut the Pioneers’ lead to a single run. The Pioneers then added a pair of runs in the ninth inning to go up 10–7. The Jackets scored what would’ve been the tying run in their final turn at bat, but they couldn’t overcome the two insurance runs and ended up losing 10–8.
The sweep leaves the Jackets at 7–9 in the OAC and three games out of the final playoff spot with only two conference games left. They’ll try to even up their record in the final OAC doubleheader of the season at Wilmington College this Saturday.
At 17–16–1 overall, B-W still has a shot at 20 wins thanks to strong pitching performances from sophomores Jim Palko and Cory Hanawalt leading up to the Marietta doubleheader. Palko pitched the final six innings of an 8–2 win at Case Western Reserve University, giving up one run on two hits and improving his record to 4–1. Hanawalt tossed the first complete game of his career and beat Oberlin College 8–2 to even his record at 2–2. He allowed only four hits, didn’t walk a single batter and faced the minimum number of Yeomen after the third inning.
For all the details on last week’s games, including box scores and updated statistics, check out the B-W Baseball Home Page.
