Baseball picks up two one-run wins in Florida on Tuesday

FORT MYERS, Fla. – On Tuesday in the 30^th Annual Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic at the Lee County Player Development Complex, the Defiance College baseball team picked up two one-run wins over the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors. Defiance won the opening game of the doubleheader, 3-2, before posting a 4-3 victory.

The Yellow Jackets improve to 4-2 overall on the year while Wisconsin Lutheran is 0-5.

In the first contest, the Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning before DC scored twice in the third and once in the fifth to establish a 3-1 advantage. WLC loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth inning and had the tying run on second base in the seventh, but Defiance held on for the win.

Defiance came up with five of the game's nine hits and played error-free defensively. Wisconsin Lutheran committed three errors and left nine runners on base, compared to seven for the Yellow Jackets.

Lucas Thomeier (Wickliffe, Ohio/Wickliffe) led DC's offense by going 2 for 4 with an RBI while freshman Brant Richardson (Convoy, Ohio/Crestview) finished 1 for 2 with a walk and two runs scored. Cody Drumm-Turner (Homer, Mich./Homer), in his first start of the season, added a 1-for-2 effort with a run scored and sacrifice bunt.

In the pitching department for Defiance, Michael Reese (Constantine, Mich./Constantine) started and went 4 1/3 innings for the win. He allowed one run with a strikeout before giving way to Will Bohlman (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville), who struck out two over 1 2/3 no-hit innings. Jack Powell (Commerce Township, Mich./Walled Lake Northern) threw the final inning with a pair of strikeouts in recoding a save.

The Warriors jumped out to another 1-0 lead in game two before the Yellow Jackets again came back with three unanswered runs and led, 3-1, after one inning. WLC tied things up with a couple of runs in the fourth inning, but DC responded with the winning run in the fifth on a clutch, two-out single by Nate Kaffenbarger (De Graff, Ohio/Indian Lake). Wisconsin Lutheran again threatened, putting the tying run on third base and go-ahead run on second in the seventh inning, but Defiance was able to snuff out the rally for the twinbill sweep.

The Yellow Jackets were outhit by a 10-7 margin and there were no extra-base hits in the contest. Each team made an error with the Warriors stranding 12 base runners and DC four.

For Defiance, freshman Josh Vischer (Genoa, Ohio/Genoa) went a perfect 2 for 2 at the plate and scored the game-winning run while Kaffenbarger ended 1 for 2 with a walk, run scored and an RBI. Reese knocked in a run with a sacrifice fly in a 1-for-2 performance while Colin Minner (London, Ohio/London) also had a hit and an RBI.

Daniel Tomalak (Tecumseh, Mich./Clinton) was the winning pitcher after yielding two earned runs with three strikeouts over five innings. The Yellow Jackets' Grant Curavo (Northwood, Ohio/Cardinal Stritch Catholic) tossed a scoreless inning as did Zac Brazen (Oxford, Ohio/Talawanda), who earned the save.

DC resumes play in the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic at the Player Development Complex on Thursday against the State University of New York at Canton. The first game is scheduled at 9 a.m.