Yellow Jackets swept in twin bill at Bluffton

BLUFFTON, Ohio – Defiance College baseball suffered two more losses at the hands of the Bluffton Beavers at Memorial Field on Saturday. Following a 10-4 defeat in the first contest, the Yellow Jackets fell 12-2 in the second game to fall to 2-14 and 0-6 in the HCAC.

Game 1 - Bluffton 10, Defiance 4

The Yellow Jackets hit the scoreboard first with a pair of runs in the second, but the Beavers answered with two in the home half of the inning before taking command with a four spot in the third. The Beavers' big knock during the four-run third was a three-run homer to left by Evan Houseman, the second of his three hits in the game, after back-to-back singles started the inning.

Bluffton tacked on two more runs with two outs during the fourth along with single scores in the fifth and eighth. The Beavers connected on 14 hits and drew nine walks against a trio of Defiance pitchers (Blake Bowman, Gabriel Kelly and Donovan Armstrong). Armstrong had the strongest performance on the hill by pitching the final four innings and held the Beavers to two runs, each of which were two-out singles set up by extra-base hits.

Defiance's offense capitalized on free bases and errors to accumulate their four runs. Before Kolbe VanderLeest drove in the first two runs of the ballgame, Mitchell Roever bunted Gunner Gregg and Jacob Hild into scoring position after they reached base on a hit by pitch and a walk to open the second inning. In the fifth, two walks by Alex Rodriguez III and Jack Brubaker-Flood led to Trent Murdock driving in a run on an RBI single. Later in the eighth, Tyler Dehan worked a walk to load the bases with one out followed by a sacrifice fly by Rodriguez.

Game 2 - Bluffton 12, Defiance 2

The Beavers compiled back-to-back three-run innings to start the second contest before rallying for four in the eighth to induce the HCAC's 10-run rule. Justin Maurer racked up five RBIs on three different doubles in Bluffton's win. Maurer was responsible for all three runs in the second frame with a bases-clearing, three-run double to boost Bluffton to a 6-0 lead. 

Yellow Jacket starter Aiden Behrman was pulled after two innings and six runs allowed. He gave way for Logan Kunkel, who went the rest of the way on the hill. He worked a 1-2-3 third inning and posted nothing but zeroes between the fifth and seventh innings.

Defiance got two runs back in the fourth when Tyler Dehan tripled in a run and scored on an error, but the Beavers responded with two in the home half of the inning. That was Bluffton's only offense against Kunkel until a six-hit, four-run eighth ended the contest early.

UP NEXT

The Yellow Jackets and Beavers are scheduled to continue their weekend series on Saturday. First pitch at Bluffton's Memorial Field is set for 1 p.m.

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