Yellow Jackets Blanked Against Transylvania

DEFIANCE, Ohio  --  Defiance left nine men on base on Sunday, including three in the ninth inning as it suffered a 4-0 loss to Transylvania. The Yellow Jackets rapped out seven hits and had two reach after getting hit by a pitch, but failed to dent the scoring column.

While the DC lineup could not string together its hits to mount a rally, Aaron Stewart kept the Jackets in the game with another strong performance on the bump. The junior scattered 10 hits over 8.1 innings and only allowed two earned runs to cross the plate.

Transylvania jumped out to the 2-0 lead with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the fourth inning. The Pioneers Ben Young reached on a Kirk Jesse error and later scored on a two-out double by Drew Zuckerman. TU added the second run with a single up the middle off the bat of Even Rhea.         

Transylvania would take a 3-0 lead with a single run in the sixth and push the spread to 4-0 win a run in the ninth to end Stewarts impressive outing. Pat McKee was then summoned to hold the game at 4-0. The lefty reliever did just that, retiring two of the three batters he faced and stranding a pair of Pioneer runners on base.

Defiance would threaten in the bottom half of the ninth after Tim Pitro, Keith Wade and David Jackson all reached safely to start the inning. TUs Korey Colyer would not allow any further damage however, as the Pioneer starting pitcher retired the next three Yellow Jacket hitters to post Transylvanias (16-6, 4-3 HCAC) third-straight complete game victory of the series.

Defiance (4-12, 0-7 HCAC) will look to bounce back from the tough weekend series when it plays at Bluffton (9-13, 3-7 HCAC) on Tuesday at 4:00 pm.