MEADVILLE, Pa. – The Allegheny College baseball team completed its second consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) four-game sweep over Oberlin College this afternoon as the Gators knocked off the Yeomen, 9-6 and 7-4, on Senior Day from the Robertson Athletic Complex.
With the quartet of victories, Allegheny (16-12, 8-4 NCAC East) moved to second place in the NCAC East standings, leaping over next weekend's opponent Kenyon College and Oberlin (13-20, 5-7 NCAC East), who entered the series with that second-place position.
The Gators used some clutch hitting to pick up both wins as the scorching offense continued its stretch with 16 runs and 22 hits over the two contests. On the weekend, Allegheny bashed 36 runs on 43 hits to complete the four-game sweep.
In the opener,
Jacob Shick played the role of hero once again as his two-out, three-run homer in the bottom of the fifth broke open a 4-4 deadlock and pushed the Gators to a 9-6 win.
The Yeomen opened the scoring with a two-out solo shot by Brian Carney, but
Robert DiMaggio answered him with a RBI single in the bottom half.
Allegheny took a 2-1 lead after the inning was extended with an error.
Cullen Flaherty made the Yeomen pay for the fielding mishap during
Austin Bristol's at-bat, ripping a two-out single to right that scored
Patrick Orr.
Oberlin made up for its errors in the top of the third with a trio of runs. Sam Harris used the opposite field for an RBI base hit and Blaise Dolcemaschio added a sacrifice fly to give the Yeomen a 3-2 advantage. The fourth run came on a communication error as Harris darted for home when
Robert Julian tossed the ball to second base.
After a scoreless fourth, Julian kept the visitors in check with a seven-pitch fifth and was rewarded with a five-run bottom half. Another error kicked things off when Flaherty reached on an Ian Dinsmore mishap and moved to second following a five-pitch walk by
Ethan Pawlak. Robert DiMagio then reached on another error to load the bases for
Joe Killian. Killian jumped on the first Milo Sklar offering, smacking a double to left that scored two and tied the game.
Sklar settled down to retire
Tyler Wagner and
Shea Beaumont, but Shick answered the bell for the second-straight day by teeing off on a 0-1 pitch for a three-run homer just inside the leftfield foul pole.
Oberlin used a two-run round-tripper from Quin Butler to chip away at the deficit, making it 7-6 following the top of the sixth. However, that one-run difference didn't last long as DiMaggio and Killian brought in runs with a single and sacrifice fly, respectively, to set the score at 9-6.
Orr moved from behind the plate to the mound for the seventh, using his strong right arm to retire Justin Cruz and Harris on back-to-back strikeouts. After a Carney single, Dolcemaschio grounded into a fielder's choice to give the junior his second save of the season.
The Yeomen again struck early in game two, picking up a pair of runs courtesy of a Dolcemaschio groundout and Dinsmore single. The hosts, however, quickly knotted it at 2-2 with a base hit from Killian.
Harris added a third run in the top of the second, but the inning ended there when he was caught in a pickle trying to advance to second.
Killian began the top of the third with the 11th double of the season and 47th of his career. Shick and
Dan Bonnett were both put away with a strikeout and flyout, but Bonnett's fly allowed the senior to move to third. The smart baserunning proved dividends for the Gators as
Max Sessions legged out an infield single to tie the game at 3-3.
Making his first start since in over a month,
Corey Keenan put together his first clean inning in the fourth by sitting Colin Brown, Jake Reynolds, and Brian Hemmert in order with a lineout, strikeout, and popout. Allegheny then put the junior right-hander in line for the win after a throwing error scored Bristol following the freshman's two-out triple.
Keenan finished off his outing with two worm-killers and a punchout, needing just 10 pitches to get through the fifth.
Joe Nagel followed that up with a 1-2-3 inning in the sixth, and was given a run in the bottom half when Bristol brought in
Vincent Carone with an opposite-field base hit.
Allegheny needed that insurance as Cruz ripped a two-out single to center that scored Nathaniel Wehr, cutting the gap to 5-4. Harris looped a base hit of his own during the next at-bat; however, a strong throw from
Andrew Dawson cut Cruz down trying to advance to third.
Killian again led off an inning and again reached base courtesy of a single, putting the pressure on Oberlin hurler Noah Gear. Gear sat down the red-hot Shick for the first hit, but left a pitch over the plate for Bonnett as the sophomore crushed a no-doubter over the left-centerfield wall to make it 7-4.
Nick DiBucci relieved Nagel and earned the first save of his career, allowing just a hit and a walk with 24 pitches over the final two frames.
Keenan's first start since March 20 yielded the junior his second win of the season as he gave up four hits, three runs, and two walks through five innings. He struck out three and generated six flyouts to five groundouts.
Prior to the contest, the Gators honored seniors
Joe Killian and
Hayden Smith as a part of Senior Day festivities.
Allegheny returns to the diamond tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. when it travels to Mount Union for a make-up contest that was originally scheduled for April 6.
