Defiance falls to Anderson in series opener Friday night

DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance College Baseball team dropped its series opener with Anderson Friday night in a high-scoring game that went 10-5 against the Yellow Jackets.

It was the Ravens who looked like they were going to strike first in the top of the first inning, but the Yellow Jackets got out of a bases loaded jam and used the momentum to grab a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the inning.

Aaron Helland led off the inning with a single and then Ryan Kohlhofer reached base with a perfectly placed bunt on the right side that eluded the pitcher and first baseman crashing in. Two batters later, Ben Weber picked up an RBI with a fielder's choice as Anderson could only convert the first half of a double play attempt.

Aaron Grasing then settled in nicely over the next four innings, allowing just one hit as Defiance remained in the lead through five innings.

Despite Grasing control the high powered Ravens offense, the Yellow Jackets could not expand on their lead as they were also held to just one hit during the same stretch.

Defiance lost the lead in the top of the sixth inning when Anderson led off with a home run to tie the game at one. The sixth proved to be a big inning for the Ravens who added another home run as part of a four-run inning on five hits.

Anderson went on to score two more runs in the seventh inning, going ahead 6-1.

The Yellow Jackets responded in the bottom of the seventh, putting together one of the best offensive innings in the game. Weber started the inning off with a walk and Gary Levengood followed it up with another long at bat that resulted in a walk.

After Tyler Sloan reach on a fielding error to load the bases, Pat Masopust hit a sacrifice fly to score the first run of the inning.

Ian Burkhart then had a pinch-hit double that scored both runners on base. On a heads up play, Burkhart took third on a dropped third strike that resulted in the catcher needing to make a throw to first. That resulted in a run as Burkhart scored on another error in the inning for Anderson.

The 6-5 Anderson lead was as close as DC got back to Anderson in the game as the Ravens responded with three runs in the eighth inning and one more in the ninth inning to go up 10-5.

Defiance will look to rebound Saturday with the second and third games of the series in a doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for noon at Rutter Field.