On Saturday, April 8, the sun was shining and the birds were singing as the Wittenberg Tigers took to a freshly chalked diamond to kick off Senior Weekend against the DePauw Tigers. Both seniors, Josh Kaplan and Dalton Boucher, got the opportunity to stand behind home plate and have their fathers throw the first pitch to them before the first game began.
In the first game, DePauw came out strong, scoring two runs to start the first inning by the lead-off batter knocking one into center field.
Wittenberg kept DePauw from scoring again until the third inning, in which DePauw scored two more runs. In the bottom of the third, Wittenberg scored for the first time when Patrick Kenny, ‘20, made it to first on a fielder’s choice, allowing Brad Malott, ‘19, to score. In the bottom of the fourth, Timmy Bates, ‘18, hit a homerun.
In the fifth, Wittenberg scored three more times with runs from Bates, Malott and Baker. Wittenberg held off DePauw through the sixth, with Malott catching a foul ball, Aaron Fasano, ‘20, catching a ground ball that enabled him to get an out at first and a pick-off from Andrew Goodpaster, ‘18, who came in during the inning to pitch for Jonathon Forster, ‘18. Wittenberg continued its dominance with three more runs from Malott, Kenny and Josh Kaplan, ‘17. In the top of the seventh, Goodpaster pitched a three-up, three-down inning. In the bottom of the seventh, Kenny hit a single to left field that knocked in Ryan Probst, ‘20. Wittenberg was then able to hold off DePauw until the top of the ninth, when the team scored two runs. But, that ended the game with Wittenberg winning 9-6.
At the beginning of the second game, Josh Darang, ‘20, came in to pitch for Wittenberg. In the top of the fourth, two of DePauw’s players hit back-to-back homeruns, followed by a fly-out that enabled a runner to steal home.
In the fifth, DePauw scored three more runs. It wasn’t until the bottom of the sixth that Wittenberg earned some runs. Dalton Boucher, ‘17, knocked in Bates and two batters later, Adam Mays, ‘20, knocked in Boucher.
In the bottom of eight, Boucher hit a homerun enabling two runs from him and Kaplan. In the end, Wittenberg took a loss at 9-4, leaving the teams at 1-1 for the day.
On Sunday, April 9, the teams returned to battle once again. In the first game, it wasn’t until the second inning that DePauw had its first homerun of the day. It wasn’t until the bottom of the third that Wittenberg scored. Kenny hit a single to left field enabling Malott and Baker to score. In the top of the fourth, DePauw scored once again.
In the fifth, DePauw scored five runs with its second homerun of the day. In the bottom of the seventh, Wittenberg scored four times after three back-to-back doubles by Baker, Kenny and Kaplan. In the bottom of the eighth, Marshall Eippert, ‘19, scored a run on an error by DePauw’s short-stop. These four runs were not enough to win the game as DePauw came back scoring again in the top of the ninth, leaving Wittenberg with a loss of 8-7.
In the final game of the weekend, DePauw scored a total of six runs in the first inning with its third homerun of the day. In the bottom of the first, Wittenberg scored on a Kaplan hit to centerfield, knocking in Kenny. In the second, DePauw scored again with the team’s fourth homerun of the day in the third.
For Wittenberg, the bottom of the third started strong with Boucher hitting a homerun, Bates stealing home and Fasano scoring off Baker’s single to right field. Neither team scored again until the top of the seventh inning, with DePauw hitting its fifth homerun of the day and home stolen off a passed ball.
In the top of the eight, the final runs of the day were scored after DePauw hit its sixth homerun, which was a grand slam. The final score for the weekend found Wittenberg with a loss of 16-4.
After 36 innings of baseball in a 24-hour period, Wittenberg will have another four-game weekend April 14-15 against Wabash College.
