Yellow Jackets Baseball falls on late rally by Bluffton

BLUFFTON, Ohio - The Defiance College Yellow Jackets baseball team dropped a heartbreaker Wednesday night to rival Bluffton in a midweek Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference battle, falling 7-6 in a walkoff.

Defiance used a Gary Levengood RBI single to score Ryan Kohlhofer in the top of the ninth to add an insurance run and go up 6-4, but Bluffton was able to answer back in the bottom half of the inning.

Bluffton started off the inning with a walk and ended up with runners on the corners after a throwing error that proved costly. In the next at bat, Bluffton brought the DC lead to just one with an RBI single.

Two batters later, another single tied the game and put runners on first and second with just one out. That was all Bluffton needed as on the next at bat, a Bluffton single scored the game-winning run in walk off fashion.

Defiance started out the game well, carrying momentum from Saturday's win against Anderson. Defiance scored a run in three of the first four innings to go up 3-0 and then added two more runs in the top of the sixth to go up by five.

Ben Weber started the scoring with an RBI single in the top of the first that scored Kohlhofer from second.

In the second inning, Defiance added another run on a fielder's choice at bat by Aaron Helland with the bases loaded that scored Joe Fabrizio from third base. However, a fly out stranded DC's second and third runners on base in the first two innings, including a runner at third.

In the third inning, DC was held scoreless as the Yellow Jackets made two of the three outs at third base.

Defiance got back to its scoring ways with a run in the fourth on with a Helland RBI single that scored Zack Reed from second base.

After a scoreless fifth inning, Defiance put its biggest inning together with two runs in the sixth. Helland had another RBI single that scored Tyler Sloan and Kohlhofer followed it up with an RBI single of his own to score Reed for the second run of the inning.

Defiance left potential runs on base though stranding the bases loaded in the sixth inning, a third of the nine total runners stranded in the game.

Bluffton started its comeback effort in the bottom of the sixth, getting one run back in by way of a throwing error. In the seventh, Bluffton added three more runs, one of which came from another error, cutting the Defiance lead to 5-4and setting the stage for the Comeback after a scoreless eighth inning.

The Yellow Jackets will look to rebound on Friday and Saturday with a three-game series at Hanover up next. The first game is set for a 4 p.m. start on Friday in Hanover, Ind.