Wittenberg Baseball Classic

The Wittenberg University baseball team split four games over the weekend in the annual Wittenberg Baseball Classic. The Tigers came into the tourney with a modest four-game win streak built primarily on a powerful offense. In two games against the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford on Friday and single games against Muskingum and Malone on Saturday, the Tigers proved they could win games in a variety of ways. 

Against Pitt-Bradford, Wittenberg won the opener in dramatic fashion. Senior outfielder Ryan Peters (London, Ohio/London), who is hitting a team-best .489 on the young season, hit a home run to give the Tigers an early lead, but the Panthers tied things up in the top of the seventh inning. In the bottom of the inning, Wittenberg loaded the bases with two outs and junior second baseman Karl Friedhoff (Sunman, Ind./East Central)walked to force in the winning run. 

In Friday's nightcap, the Tigers lost to Pitt-Bradford 6-5 despite a three-hit game from junior centerfielder Lance Dill (Bellville, Ohio/Clear Fork). Wittenberg nearly rallied from a 6-0 deficit but couldn't push across the tying run during sixth and seventh inning rallies. 

On Saturday, Wittenberg dropped its first game against Muskingum 7-2. But in the final game of the day, the Tigers got a tremendous pitching performance from junior Brad Cerovac (Brunswick, Ohio/Brunswick), a five-hit, 10-strikeout, complete-game shutout victory over Malone. The win was preserved when freshman leftfielder Shawn Jarecki (Parma Heights, Ohio/Valley Forge) made a perfect throw to third base to record the final out of the game.