Defiance Baseball Beaten by Bluffton

BLUFFTON, OHIO   --  A late seven-run inning by Bluffton University resulted in a 10-7 loss for the Defiance College baseball team in a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference single game at Memorial Field in Bluffton.

Bluffton (10-19, 5-11 HCAC) took the game's first lead with a run in the bottom of the first inning on a sacrifice fly.  Defiance (15-13, 8-8 HCAC) tied the game in the third with a run that came on a double play with bases loaded.  

The Beavers regained the lead with a run in the fourth on another sacrifice fly, but the Yellow Jackets came right back by scoring five runs in the top of the fifth inning highlighted by a pair of RBI-singles by senior Ben Weber (Troy/Lehman Catholic) and junior Zack Reed (Midland, Mich./Bullock Creek) in addition to a sacrifice fly by freshman Tyler Weaver (Defiance) making the score 6-2.

DC tacked on another run in the sixth thanks to another RBI-single by Weber, increasing the margin to 7-2.  Bluffton chipped away at the Defiance lead with a score in the seventh and then took control of the game in the eighth with seven runs to give the Beavers a 10-7 advantage.

In the top of the ninth, the Jackets would record three straight outs as Bluffton went on to claim the 10-7 come-from-behind win.

DC had 13 hits in the game led by Kohlhofer who ended the game with three hits in five attempts and also scored a run.  Senior Gary Levengood (Beverly Hills, Fla./Lecanto) went two-of-three with a run scored and RBI.  Weber and sophomore Dom Gentile (Defiance) rounded out the multi-hitters with two-of-five efforts each.  Weber also scored a run to go along with his two RBI and Gentile also had a run scored.

At pitcher, freshman Bryce Alabata (Bryan) got the start and pitched three-and-a-third innings allowing two runs on two hits and had two strikeouts.  Sophomore Jacob Green (Defiance) came in to pitch three and two-thirds innings of relief and would end up as the pitcher of record and drops to 0-3 overall with the loss.  He gave up seven runs, five earned, on eight hits and tallied three strikeouts.  Senior Chris Douglas (Wixom, Mich./Walled Lake Western) pitched the final inning and allowed one run on two hits.

Defiance will host Heidelberg University in a non-conference matchup tomorrow (Wednesday, Apr. 20) at Craig A. Rutter Field.  The game is scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m.