Wittenberg Sweeps Misericordia

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - The Wittenberg Tigers improved to 5-1 with a doubleheader sweep of Misericordia in games played in Port Charlotte, Fla., as part of the team's Spring Break trip.

Wittenberg won the opener 12-4, thanks in part to a seven-run outburst in the top of the first inning. Senior Jon Komperda contributed an RBI single, junior Brian Hampp followed with a two-run double, junior Justin McCulla chipped in with a two-run triple, the first of two for him on the day, and scored on an error on the play, and freshman Jon Fox collected a pair of singles, the latter driving in the final run. Wittenberg added single runs in the second, fifth and sixth innings and two more insurance runs in the seventh. Misericordia pushed four runs across in the fifth inning, but otherwise did little offensively.

Juniors Steve Less and Tyler McClain took care of the pitching duties. Less allowed four earned runs on four hits and one walk in 4.2 innings before yielding to McClain, who earned the save with 2.1 innings of scoreless baseball. He allowed three hits in his first collegiate appearance in the Red & White.

Offensively, Wittenberg banged out 17 hits, led by McCulla's four base knocks and four runs batted in. Fox, Hampp, Komperda, freshman Joel Puthoff and senior Tom Pickering also finished with multi-hit games.

In the nightcap, Wittenberg again pounced early, scoring five runs in the first two innings, and cruised to a 7-3 victory.

Fox was again the table-setter with a single and stolen base to lead off. Komperda drove him in with a single, senior Matt Foster added an RBI triple and Pickering capped the rally with a run-scoring single. In the second, junior K.R. Schlievert had a sacrifice fly and Foster added an RBI single. Schlievert added a sacrifice fly in the fourth and an RBI single in the sixth to round out Wittenberg's scoring.

On the mound, senior Kurt Hartfelder went the distance, allowing three runs on eight hits and two walks.