DC Baseball Suffers Sweep to Transylvania

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Defiance College dropped a pair of games on Sunday to Transylvania, as the Pioneers used the 9-1 and 9-7 victories to complete the three-game sweep over the Yellow Jackets at Craig A. Rutter Field.

TU's Chris Block was dominant on the hill in the opener, as the sophomore lefty carried a no-hitter into the ninth inning, before Keith Wade single through the left side to put the only dent in Block's complete-game gem.

While the Yellow Jacket bats were stymied all game, the Transylvania lineup went to work and churned out nine runs on 14 hits. The Pioneers pulled away late in the game, plating three runs in the eighth and ninth innings to turn a 3-1 contest into the 9-1 victory.

The TU offense carried that momentum into the series finale, jumping to a 4-1 lead in the second inning and adding three more in the fourth to go in front by the 7-2 gap.

Defiance finally got its bats on track in the bottom of the fourth, as Levi Pauli worked a walk to open the inning and moved to third on a bunt single from Jonathan Murphy. Pauli would later score on a ground out from Kirk Jesse, before a two-run double from Tim Pitro plated Murphy and Nick Welling to draw DC within 7-5.

Transylvania would widen its lead to 9-5 with single tallies in the seventh and eighth, before Defiance made one final rally in the bottom of the ninth. Murphy played a role in the rally once again, collecting his third hit of the game to open the frame.

Welling and Pitro would follow with one-out singles to load the bases and bring Casey Kahsen to the dish as the potential tying run. Kahsen extended the rally and plated Murphy, as the Transylvania shortstop booted a ground ball and a Keith Wade grounder plated Welling to draw DC within two runs.

The Jackets would get no closer however, as they left the tying runs on the bases and the Pioneers escaped with the 9-7 victory.

Tyler Gallant pitched well in relief for Defiance, going 4.1 innings without allowing an earned run and Jake Taylor worked a scoreless ninth to help preserve DC's comeback hopes.

Murphy ended with three hits and two runs, while Welling matched him with three hits and crossed the plate four times. Pitro also collected three hits and knocked in three runs to move to 96 for his career and just two back of Hans Zipfel (1993-1996) for the top RBI total in Defiance College history.

Pitro will look to reach that mark on Wednesday, when Defiance (12-19) travels to Ada, Ohio, to play Ohio Northern (21-9) at 4:00 pm in the final non-conference game of the season for the Jackets.