DePauw baseball team completes weekend sweep of Wabash

Sunday, April 24, 2016
Jack Thompson

The DePauw baseball team took 10-3 and 9-5 wins on Sunday and swept their four-game series with Wabash to move to 18-15 overall and close North Coast Athletic Conference play with an 8-8 record.

Wabash fell to 16-16 overall and 6-6 in the NCAC with a four-game series with Denison remaining on their NCAC schedule.

The Tigers homered in both games Sunday thanks to Jack Thompson and Ryan Grippo. In game one, Thompson went 2-for-4 with three RBI including an RBI double in the third and his two-run home run in the fifth.

Yet, it was the fourth inning the Tigers did most of their damage in game one, putting up seven runs and knocking out Wabash starting pitcher Bryan Roberts.

Connor Einertson, who went 2-for-3 in the game, hit a one-out triple to get things going. Six singles later and a couple walks, DePauw brought seven runners across in the inning.

That was enough support for Andrew Quinn (2-2) who picked up the win in six innings of work, giving up three earned runs on seven hits. Collin Einertson and Grippo each collected a pair of RBI in the win.

In game two, DePauw jumped to a 3-0 lead in the second inning with an RBI single from Connor Einertson and a two-run single by Reid Pittard. Wabash put up two in the top of the third but Grippo's three-run HR in the bottom of the inning helped push the DePauw lead to 7-2 after three innings.

Grippo finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored. Collin Einertson and Tate Stewart each collected two hits, while Reid Pittard went a perfect 4-for-4 with four singles and three RBI.

Mike Hammel (5-2) picked up the win in seven innings of work. He gave up four earned runs and struck out seven. Sam Comer and Nick Horvath each pitched a scoreless inning of relief to close the game. First, it was Lucas Italiano with a walk-off hit in nine innings to give DePauw a 5-4 win over Wabash in game one on Saturday. Then it was Zack Wade with the eventual game winning three-run home run in the bottom of the sixth to give DePauw a 4-1 win and a Saturday sweep over the Little Giants.

After taking an early 1-0 lead by an RBI single from Max Cohen in the second inning, the Tigers were cruising thanks to the early pitching of Wyatt Spector, who had a no-hitter through 4.2 innings.

Spector was the definition of a ground ball pitcher in his outing with 13 ground balls and three strikeouts in 5.2 innings. Wabash's first hit came on a bunt with two outs in the fifth.

Spector came back out in the sixth but was replaced by Nick Horvath after giving up two runs and leaving two runners on. The outfield helped immensely on the last two outs of the inning, first with Collin Einertson gunning down a runner at home and then Jack Thompson doing the same for the final out.

In game 2, Wade's home run to left center field broke a 1-1 in the bottom of the sixth as Riley Futterknecht capped off his complete game in the seventh. It was Wade's first career home run as he also doubled his RBI total of the season to six.

Futterknecht moves to 5-1 on the year. The one run given up was unearned, and he also struck out 10 batters. Michael Hermann (2-3) took the loss for Wabash pitching all six innings.

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