Wittenberg Pounces On Wilmington In 11-6 Victory

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - The Wittenberg Tigers are still in search of that perfect game in which all of the elements come together in perfect harmony - pitching, defense and offense. Wednesday night's 11-6 home win over Ohio Athletic Conference rival Wilmington was possibly a step toward each of those goals as the Tiger offense broke out for a big night, junior Justin McCulla turned in a solid start and the defense committed just one error.

The win improved the Tigers to 12-10 overall, including a 4-4 mark in the North Coast Athletic Conference West Division. Wittenberg has a four-game weekend series approaching with visiting Thomas More as the next tune-up for NCAC West action, which includes the Tigers again the final two weekends of April in series' against Earlham and Denison.

This game was over early, although Wilmington battled back to make it respectable. Wittenberg scored five runs in the first inning and four more in the second, batting around both times, en route to a 10-0 lead by the end of the third inning. From that point, the Quakers outscored Wittenberg 6-1, but the game's outcome was already pretty much determined.

Wittenberg banged out 13 hits in the game, with a majority of those coming from the top four players in the Tiger lineup. Freshman Jon Fox, junior K.R. Schlievert, senior Jon Komperda and junior Brian Hampp went 10-for-19 with nine runs scored and seven runs batted in. Hampp was the catalyst with three hits, including two doubles, two runs and three RBI.

On the mound, Wittenberg got a decent starting performance from junior Justin McCulla, who went 5.2 innings for the victory. He scattered eight hits and three runs, just one of which was earned thanks to a fielding error on a potential double-play ball in the sixth inning. Junior Tyler McClain and freshman Tyler Curlis followed McCulla to the mound and were able to close the Quakers out.