Mount St. Joseph Edges Defiance in HCAC Matchup

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Yellow Jacket baseball team came into the weekend Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference series against Mount St. Joseph on a hot streak, winning its last two contests. Unfortunately for DC, the squad could not stay perfect on the week and lost the first of a three-game series by a final of 6-4.

Defiance scored in the first inning for the second-straight game to gain an early 1-0 lead. The three hitter and the game's starting pitcher, Darin Waterman, was responsible for driving in the run, as the junior laced a shot into right center to score leadoff hitter Aaron Helland.

From the mound, Waterman tossed a scoreless first three innings before running into some trouble in the fourth. Mount St. Joseph used a two-out rally in the frame, scoring two runs to take a 2-1 lead. An inning later, the Lions managed to tack on two more runs to increase their lead to 4-1 after the top of the fifth.

The Yellow Jackets fought back in the bottom half of the inning to draw within one off RBI singles from Ryan Kohlhofer and Chris Donese. With the hit, Kohlhofer extended his hitting streak to five games and has driven in five runs in his last three contests.

After the fifth frame, both teams' offenses were held at bay for the next two innings, as neither team managed a run, but in the top of the eighth the Lions struck for two runs to increase their lead back to 6-3.

DC responded with one run in the bottom of the inning to cut the deficit to two but was unable to complete the comeback after a scoreless ninth and lost by a final of 6-4.

Helland led the Purple and Gold at the plate with three base knocks on the afternoon, his sixth multi-hit performance of the season.

With the defeat, the Jackets fall to 10-8 on the season and 3-5 in the Heartland. The two sides return to the field on Saturday to wrap up the series with a doubleheader. Game one is slated to begin at 12:00 p.m.