The Oglethorpe baseball team was close much of the evening against former SCAC rival DePauw Wednesday night, but could not quite get over the hump as the visiting Tigers held on for a 7-5 victory. The loss drops the Petrels to 10-11 on the season as they go back into SAA play at Centre this weekend.
The Tigers jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on the Stormy Petrels in the first inning, as Oglethorpe starter Dan McBryan pitched in some bad luck in allowing four runs on four hits in an inning of work. The inning was exacerbated by two Petrel errors, and McBryan eventually suffered the loss to drop him to 0-1 on the season.
The Petrels got a run back in the bottom half of the inning when first baseman Patrick Kulick slammed a towering fly ball over the right-center field wall to make it 4-1. DePauw answered with another run in the top of the third, but the Petrels got three back in the bottom of the fourth to pull to within a single run. Second baseman Keith Dearden reached with a one-out single and right fielder Jake Purcell followed with a two-run home run on a low liner that just cleared the right-field wall to make the score 5-3. Third baseman Frank Sarno then singled and stole second and left fielder Andre Turnquest reached on a DePauw error. Sarno was picked off and eventually thrown out in a rundown, but Turnquest advanced to second on the play and subsequently scored on an RBI single by catcher Kerrigan McManigal to draw the Petrels to within a run, 5-4.
Both teams scored a run in the fifth inning, but the Petrels missed a chance to score more. They had a runner thrown out at the plate in the inning, and had the bases loaded with one out after that. However, the only run the Petrels got came on a fielder's choice-RBI from Purcell. Sarno struck out to end the threat.
With the score 6-5, the Petrels could never get an additional run across to tie the game. DePauw scored an insurance run in the ninth and the Petrels went down in order, securing the 7-5 Tigers victory.
Joe Marco pitched very well in the sixth and seventh for the Petrels, keeping them within a run. He pitched two innings and struck out six batters, retiring the side in both innings entirely with strikeouts while working around two hits. Neither Marco, David Langhan nor Patrick Kulick gave up any earned runs in their combined four innings of relief work, though Kulick gave up an unearned run. Normal starter Ryan Brennan pitched a scoreless inning of relief in the second, striking out a batter, in what served as a tune-up for his likely starting assingment this weekend.
Kulick and Sarno both finished 2-for-4 on the night. Kulick homered while Sarno recorded a stolen base.
The two teams used to play each other regularly as part of the SCAC until the 2012 season, when the Tigers left for the North Coast Athletic Conference. The next year, Oglethorpe left as well to become part of the newly-formed SAA.
This weekend's three-game SAA series against Centre will take place Saturday and Sunday in Danville, Ky. Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. while Sunday's single game is scheduled for 1 p.m., as well, subject to any weather-related changes.