Baseball Drops Pair to Ohio Wesleyan

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla.  --  Defiance ended its stay in Port Charlotte, Fla. on Friday with a pair of defeats against Ohio Wesleyan. The Yellow Jackets had their three-game win streak snapped with a 7-3 loss in the opener, before losing 9-3 in the second game of the day.

Ohio Wesleyan jumped on the board early and often in each game, plating two runs in the first and second innings of the opener and pushing seven across the plate in the first two frames of the second game.

The leads would hold up as Defiance never led in 14 innings of the doubleheader. The Jackets trailed 7-0 in the opener before rallying for three runs in the bottom of the seventh. DC had its first three hitters reach base safely before RBI hits from Casey Kahsen and Ben Gates made it a 7-2 game. Brad Timofeev then hit a sacrifice fly to center to plate the third and final tally of the game.                  

In the second game, Defiance found itself in a 7-1 hole after two innings, but scored a pair in the fourth to cut the deficit to 7-3. That would be as close as the Jackets would get, as OWU added two more in the sixth for the final score of 9-3.

Timofeev, Aaron Stewart and Trey Harris each had two hits in the game and Timofeev and Brent James had the only two RBI for Defiance.

Nate White pitched solid in relief, tossing 3.2 innings and allowing only one run and three hits.

Defiance (3-5) will head back north and take on NCAA Division I opponent IFPW (2-10) on Tuesday at 3:00 pm on Tuesday afternoon in Fort Wayne, Ind. The Jackets will then host Grace College (1-6) on Wednesday at 4:00 pm in their 2008 home opener.