Defiance Takes Pair Against Rose-Hulman on Senior Day

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Defiance College closed its 2010 campaign with a pair of Senior Day victories on Saturday at Rutter Field against Rose-Hulman. The series win by the Jackets ended the HCAC Championship hopes of the Engineers, while capping DC's winningest season since winning 19 games in 1999.

The day started with the completion of Friday's suspended game, which had Rose-Hulman holding an 8-6 lead over Defiance entering the bottom of the eighth inning. The Engineers quickly gathered the first two outs, before Nick Welling extended the inning with a walk and motored to third on a Tim Pitro double. Casey Kahsen then dumped a two-run single into right field to tie the game and singles from Keith Wade and Brad Rittner gave DC the 9-8 edge. Zach Stallkamp then delivered an opposite field double to plate Wade and Rittner and push the Defiance lead to 11-8.

The three-run cushion would hold, as Tyler Gallant worked a perfect ninth inning to preserve the come from behind victory for the Yellow Jackets. Gallant (3-3) was credited with the victory, after yielding one hit and one unearned run in two innings, following a clutch six-inning relief performance from Aaron Patterson in which he struck out six Rose-Hulman batters.

The Jacket offense erupted for 11 runs on 13 hits behind multi-hit games from six of the top seven hitters in the lineup. Kirk Jesse swiped three bases to tie the DC single-season record of 27, while Pitro, Wade and Stallkamp each doubled.

The offense stayed hot in the second game, using a six-run second inning to take control. The Jackets took advantage of shaky command from the Rose-Hulman hurler to ignite the rally, using a pair of walks and a hit batter to plate the first run. Bryn Lehman then swatted a two-run single into center field and an R-H error plated the fourth tally. Wade capped the inning with a two-run single that lifted DC to the 6-3 lead.

Rittner would double and score in the third to extend the gap to 7-3, as Defiance scored in each of its half innings after the first inning to keep the Rose-Hulman attack at bay. The result was an 11-7 DC victory that saw the Purple and Gold pile up 14 more hits.

Wade and Lehman were the heroes, as Wade went 4-4 with two runs and four driven in, while Lehman ended with four hits and a pair of RBI.

Brett Belew (2-2) took the win on the bump, tossing 2.1 innings in relief of Pat McKee and giving up just one hit and one earned run. Stephen Leskow closed the victory with a perfect seventh inning.

Rose-Hulman (26-11, 14-8 HCAC) rebounded in the series finale, pounding out 18 runs on 20 hits to take the 18-4 victory.

Defiance completed its assault on the record books on Saturday and saw four more records fall, as Jesse set single-season marks with 171 at bats and 30 steals, while Pitro tied the single-season record with 14 doubles and set a new all-time runs record with 110.

Falling records were a theme for the Yellow Jackets in 2010, as the team set all-time records with 1,357 at bats, 400 hits, 76 doubles, 321 innings pitched, 963 put outs, 420 assists and a .958 fielding percentage.

Multiple individual single-season standards were also set, with Jesse's at bats and steals marks joining Pitro's doubles record and Bryn Lehman's assist total of 119.

Jesse and Pitro carried the act over into the all-time rankings as well, with Jesse departing as the program's all-time leader with 555 at bats and Pitro rounding out his record-breaking career as DC's all-time leader with 174 hits, 110 runs scored, 102 runs batted in, 34 doubles and 346 assists.

That duo was joined by Wade, Kahsen, McKee and Matt Chidester in being honored prior to the start of Saturday's action, as Defiance honored its six-man senior class.

Defiance ended the 2010 season with a 16-23 overall record and a 7-15 clip in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Jackets are set to return the entire pitching staff, along with five starters and 13 lettermen on offense for the 2011 campaign.