Defiance Drops Two on the Diamond at Albion

ALBION, Mich. – An Albion walkoff single in the bottom of the ninth inning in Sunday's second game concluded a frustrating day on the field for Defiance College, as the Jackets suffered a doubleheader sweep at Albion College in non-conference action.

Kirk Jesse started the day with a double and later scored on an error to give DC the early 1-0 advantage, but it would be all Albion from there on in game one. The Britons unleashed on Jason Farr (1-3) for six runs in the second inning. The extended rally was fueled by two Defiance errors and capped by a three-run homer from Nick Frank.

Albion would later add four more tallies and cruise to the 10-5 win in the opener, thanks in large part to the Yellow Jacket fielding woes. DC committed three errors in the opener, which led to three unearned runs.

Brett Belew threw well in relief once again, coming out of the pen to hold AC to two earned runs in four innings and striking out four.

Jesse and Keith Wade paced the offense with two hits each, while both scored one run for the Yellow Jackets.

Jesse began the second game much like he has all season, starting the game with a triple and scoring a first-inning run for the fifth-straight time and the 10th time in 12 games to open the 2010 campaign.

The Jackets threatened to add more, before leaving a pair of runners in scoring position in what proved to be a costly trend for the Defiance bats in game two.

The contest rolled into the seventh inning tied at 3-3 before Stallkamp and Tim Pitro reached safely to start the frame with one out. The duo would eventually score to give the Jackets a 5-3 cushion heading into the bottom of the seventh.

The Jackets then took the field in the bottom of the seventh needing three outs to lock down the victory but the Britons had other ideas and opened the frame with a pair of singles. Another costly error on Defiance would let one run score and Albion would eventually tie the game at 5-5 on a sacrifice fly to force extra innings.

DC would threaten in the top half of the eighth with a one-out double from Bryn Lehman, before stranding him for the 10th runner left on the base in the game for the Jackets.

The missed chances finally caught up to Defiance in the ninth, as Albion secured the doubleheader sweep and the 6-5 victory with a walk-off single.

Stallkamp, Pitro and Tyler Gallant led the charge by each rapping out two hits, as DC scored five runs on 11 hits but the 10 runners left on base ended up being too much to overcome.

Defiance falls to 6-6 on the season with the pair of losses and will look to rebound when it travels to Hanover (7-7) to open the 2010 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference portion of the schedule. The three-game set is slated to begin with a single game on Friday, March 26 at 4:00 pm, before a doubleheader at noon on Saturday.