Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

Tucson, AZ – The Oberlin College baseball team started spring break in grand fashion with a doubleheader sweep of Middlebury College on Saturday afternoon at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona. The Yeomen took game one 9-4 and rallied from a 9-0 deficit to comeback and win the nightcap 14-11.

As a team the Yeomen belted out 27 hits on the day, including 18 in the thrilling come-from-behind victory. Junior Mike McDonald, who was one of four players with four hits in the twinbill, had a team-high four RBI's in the sweep.

Game two could have not started any worse for the Yeomen as the Panthers scored nine runs in the top of the first inning, however, the Yeomen never threw in the towel and methodically worked their way back into the game before erupting for eight runs in the sixth.

Oberlin got three runs back in the second starting with Zach Jaspers' singled through the left side that scored Eric Knight. Robin Witjes followed with a run-producing single of his own. Jaspers and Witjes then executed a double steal that resulted in the final run of the inning to come across.

Sophomore Daniel Baldocchi kept the Yeomen within striking distance by pitching 2.2 innings of scoreless relief out of the bullpen. He surrendered just two hits while striking out three.

In the third, RBI hits by Knight and Hutson made it an 11-5 game and Jeff Schweighoffer's single to right field in the fourth cut the deficit down to five.

In the eight-run sixth the Yeomen sent 13 hitters to the plate, belting out eight hits while taking advantage of two Middlebury errors. A critical error brought Schweighoffer to the plate with two runners on and he did not disappoint with an RBI single to right. McDonald followed with a bases loaded 3-run double down the left line to cut the lead down to one. Hutson, who had four hits on the day, stayed scorching hot with a run-producing single to the tie game, before rookie Brian Hemmert would put the Yeomen on top for good with a two-run single back up the box. Mitch Novak set the final run home on a single to center that scored Witjes.

Ryan Bliss and Henry Rice also tossed two-thirds of an inning of scoreless relief each, with Rice earning the win. McDonald came in to shut the door in the seventh to record his first save of the season.

In the lid-lifter the Yeomen got their offense going in the top of the second inning, plating four runs in the frame. Ben Whitener, who also had four hits for the day, ripped an opposite-field double down the left line and would then score on McDonald's single to right center for the team's first run of the trip. Rookie Blaise Dolcemaschio later followed with a bases-loaded single and senior Witjes would cap the scoring in the inning with a sac fly to center.

The Panthers would respond with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to make it 4-3, but the Yeomen answered right back with a pair in the third. Dolcemaschio drew a bases-loaded walk, and later an error by the Panthers resulted in another Yeomen run coming across.

Middlebury pushed one more run across in the fourth off of Yeomen starter Mattie DeDoes to make it 6-4, but the right hander went back out to work a clean fifth en route to improving to 2-0 on the young season. The junior from Ann Arbor, Michigan, pitched around some trouble in the first as two hits and two Oberlin errors resulted in Middlebury loading the bases. However, DeDoes was able to escape unscathed, but not before he threw 39 pitches in the inning. In all, he allowed four runs (three earned) on 10 hits. He struck out two and walked two while totaling 105 pitches, 66 of which went for strikes.

The Yeomen tacked on three more insurance runs in the top of the seventh to leave no doubt in the eventual outcome. Knight plated Whitener on a double to left center. Hutson also added an RBI triple, before Dolcemaschio's squeeze bunt sent him across the dish.

The Yeomen go back to work tomorrow morning with a doubleheader against Luther College. First pitch is set for 10 a.m. PST.