Anderson Takes Pair Against Yellow Jackets

ANDERSON, Ind. – Defiance College was four outs from a series-opening victory on Saturday at Anderson but saw the host Ravens rally for a 7-5 victory in game one, before shutting out the Jackets, 14-0, in the second game of the doubleheader.

DC closed in on the game-one win in the fifth, as Bryn Lehman and Brent Kremer singled to put runners on the corners with one out. A trio of run-scoring singles then followed from Bobby Pardun, Alex Timofeev and Brent James to give Defiance the 4-2 lead.

The Ravens would plate a run in the bottom half of the fifth, but Levi Pauli tripled to start the sixth and countered the AU run by scoring on a Lehman sacrifice fly out to center field to give the Purple and Gold a 5-3 edge.

Matt Kaighin recorded the second out of the bottom of the sixth with two AU runners on base and the two-run lead in place. Defiance would not escape the jam however, as back-to-back walks pushed an Anderson run across and ended Kaighin's afternoon. Brady Roundtree then delivered the deciding blow with a bases-clearing triple off of Jake Taylor that sent the Jackets into the seventh facing a two-run deficit.

AU's Andrew Enderle made the 7-5 lead hold, as he set down the DC batters in order in the top of the seventh inning to complete the comeback by the Ravens.

Pardun continued his late-season surge by collected three hits, a run and an RBI, while Timofeev stroked a pair of run-scoring singles and Brent Kremer reached safely four times and scored twice.

Saturday's second game was not nearly as dramatic, as Anderson used 15 hits and four Defiance errors to post the 14-0 shutout. Aaron Helland, Timofeev and James each went 1-3 at the plate, accounting for the only three hits of the game for the Jackets.

The two teams will close out the weekend series on Sunday, with the third and final game of the set slated to begin at noon.