On April 18, the Wittenberg Tigers took on the Capital University Crusaders at Carlton Davidson Stadium in Springfield.
The first pitch of the night was thrown at 6 p.m. by Wittenberg’s own Luke Campbell, ‘20. In the top of the first inning, the Crusaders got away with one run after Capital made it on base on an error from shortstop Ryan Probst, ’20, and was knocked around, narrowly missing a double play. In the bottom of the first inning, Witt had one hit by Patrick Kenny, ’20, who unfortunately did not score.
In the top of the second, the Crusaders got away with four runs after there was a double to center field and then a triple to right field, scoring four runs in all. Brad Malott, ’19, got a lot of action at first base, making two of the three outs of the inning, catching a foul pop out for the third out of the inning. In the bottom of the second, designated hitter Marshall Eippert, ’19, had the only hit of the inning, stealing his way around the bases but not scoring, leaving Witt down by four runs at the top of the third.
In the top of the third, Josh Darang, ‘20, came in for Campbell making, the first pitching change of the game. In the bottom of the third, Kenny hit a double to right field, knocking in Matt Baker, ’19, and Malott. These were the first two runs of the game for Witt.
In the top of the fourth, the Crusaders scored a run, but directly after, Witt’s center fielder Baker made the throw to catcher, Kenny. Kenny made a sensational play that got the second out at home. Sadly, Capital scored again later that inning, putting them ahead of the Tigers by six runs. The top of the fifth inning brought five runs for the Crusaders after four different singles were hit to left field and on each hit, one or two runs came in. The Tigers were now down by eleven runs in the bottom of the fifth.
The Tigers scored again in the bottom of the sixth, when Chase Carpenter, ’20, hit a homerun and knocked in Eippert and Probst. In the bottom of the eighth, the Tigers scored three more runs when Shane Harris, ’20, came in to pinch hit for Malott and hit a homerun. After the second homerun of the game for the Tigers, Carpenter and Eippert both scored. Unfortunately, that was the last time the Tigers scored against the Crusaders.
At the end of the game, the Crusaders won with 14 runs to the Tigers six. Look out for the box scores from the four-game series the Tigers are set to play against Denison’s Big Red baseball team on April 22-23.
