DC Tops Pioneers for First HCAC Victory

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Defiance scored in each of the first five innings and held on for a 10-7 victory in the second game of Saturday's doubleheader at HCAC-leading Transylvania. The Jackets avoided the sweep, after TU took a 9-2 win in the opener.

Michael Dushane got things started in the nightcap with a single and Kirk Jesse followed with a double to take the 1-0 lead just two batters into the contest. The quick scoring would become a trend for the Jackets, as Alex Timofeev singled and scored on an error in the second and Mykel Rosario drove home Casey Kahsen for the 3-1 advantage.

DC would add another in the fourth when Tim Pitro reached on an error and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Nick Welling. Then with a 4-3 advantage entering the fourth, Defiance got three-straight one-out hits from Rosario, Dushane and Jesse to ignite a three-run outburst that extended the gap to 7-3 in favor of the Purple and Gold.

The Jackets put the game out of reach in the top of the fifth. With two outs and the bases empty, Kahsen and Rosario extended the inning with walks and Dushane tripled them both in to make it a 9-3 ballgame.

Aaron Stewart (1-1) made the lead hold up with a gutsy performance on the mound. The senior hurler pitched around 13 Pioneer hits and held the TU attack to five runs in eight innings of work, while striking out eight.

Todd Odell entered in the ninth to preserve the DC victory and allowed the first two batters to reach, before settling down and retiring the final three hitters in order to close out the 10-7 win.

The bookends of the Yellow Jacket lineup did much of the damage, as Dushane and Jesse collected six hits and drove in five runs from the top two spots, while Rosario also had three hits and knocked in a pair of runs from the ninth spot in the lineup.

In all, seven DC hitters rapped out at least one hit in the 14-hit attack and seven crossed the plate at least one time in the 10-run outburst.

The offense was not nearly as hot in the afternoon's first game, as the Jackets mustered just two runs on four hits and only dented the scoreboard in one inning.

That two-run rally came in the third frame, when singles from Jesse and Pitro scored Braden Brugler and Brandon Belew to cut the Transylvania advantage to just 3-2.

The Pioneers fired back with a run in the bottom half of the inning and then blew the game open with five runs in the sixth to secure the 9-2 win.

Defiance (4-11, 1-2 HCAC) will have a busy week coming up, as the Jackets are set to host five games at Craig Rutter Field in the next seven days. That homestand will begin on Tuesday with a 4:00 pm matchup against Bluffton (7-8, 2-1 HCAC).