Baseball Drops Conference Game to Mount St. Joseph

DEFIANCE, Ohio  --  A key Heartland Conference weekend series got off to a rough start for the Yellow Jackets on Friday afternoon at Rutter Field as the College of Mount St. Joseph scored the final eight runs of the game to take the series opener by an 8-1 margin.

Mike Hill paced the Defiance offense by collecting three hits in four trips to the plate and LeTroy Harris stayed hot at the dish by going 2-3. Tim Pitro and Brad Timofeev also collected hits and Lenny Koesters scored the only run of the game for the Jackets.

Things looked good early for the Purple and Gold as Nick Picciano set down the Lions in order in the top of the first and Lenny Koesters worked a 10-pitch walk to start the bottom half of the frame. Koesters then stole second and came around to score the first run of the game on a single to left field off the bat of Pitro.

MSJs Chris Waite settled in after the rocky first inning and silenced Defiance for the remainder of the game to earn his fourth win on the mound this season.                            

The Lions offense got on track in the second, scoring three runs and tacking two more in the third to take control of the game with a 5-1 lead. MSJ added two more in the fifth and another in the ninth to seal the 8-1 win.

Nick Picciano allowed five earned runs in five innings and Cameron Cunert allowed just two hits and one run in four innings out of the pen.

DC will host the Lions for two more games on Saturday, with the opener set to start at noon.