Chillicothe, Ohio – In what could easily be considered the greatest day in the history of the Oberlin College baseball program, the Yeomen defeated the nationally ranked Scots of Wooster 11-5 in the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship game to secure their first league title.
 
The Yeomen will now advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time, with the regional bracket to be released on Sunday evening. The conference championship for the Yeomen is also the first male-sports title for Oberlin since the formation of the NCAC in 1984.
 
After defeating both Allegheny and Wooster on Thursday, the Yeomen advanced into the championship, having to lose two games in order to finish as runner-ups. The Scots would take care of the Yeomen 23-6 in game one, but the decisive seventh game of the tournament was a much different story.
 
Senior Benjamin Whitener had one of the best games of his career, as he was 4-for-5 with four RBI. Ryan Bliss, who joined Whitener on the all-tournament, added two hits, as did classmate Danny Baldocchi.
 
NCAC Tournament MVP Milo Sklar got the win in relief as he worked 3.2 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on three hits and three walks. Pitching in his third game of the tournament, Sklar lived dangerously throughout the outing, but continued to make big pitches in key spots when it mattered most. For the tournament, he went 1-0 with a save, while striking out five in 7.2 innings of work.
 
Macabe Camps got the start and after a tough first inning that saw the Scots score two, he settled in nicely before leaving with one out in the fourth. He surrendered just the two runs on six hits.
 
The Yeomen scored at least a run in each of the first four innings to put the pressure on the Scots.
 
In the first, Whitener's two-out opposite-field double cut the lead in half at 2-1 and then in the second the Yeomen would plate a pair and never trail again. The inning started with Bliss crushing a triple to straightaway centerfield that short-hopped the wall. He would then cruise home on Mitch Novak's double to left to tie the game. Novak would later score on a fielder's choice when Justin Cruz hit a bouncing ball to Jamie Lackner at first base and he elected to go home with the throw, but Novak beat the tag with a headfirst slide to outside part of the plate.
 
Whitener and Andrew Hutson started the third with back-to-back singles and following a sac bunt, Hutson would score on a groundout by Bliss as the Yeomen doubled up the Scots 4-2 through three innings.
 
It would be the five-run fourth that would ultimately be the undoing for the Scots. The first run came across on a wild pitch, but the real damage all came with two outs. Whitener came through with a clutch two-run double before Baldocchi sent a screaming two-run home run over the wall in left to make it a 9-2 Yeomen lead.
 
Sklar ran into some trouble in the fifth as the Scots took advantage of two walks, a hit batter and an error to score three runs in the inning, The only hit of the inning was a run-producing infield single by catcher Tyler Ostendorf.
 
With the score now 9-5, neither team threatened in the sixth or seventh.
 
In the eighth, Wooster would put the lead off man aboard to chase Sklar from the game. Just one day after pitching 6.2 innings and throwing 91 pitches in the Yeomen's 7-6 win over Allegheny, the Yeomen turned to Kyle Dominy to finish the job. The sophomore southpaw did just that , getting out of the inning unscathed.
 
Knowing the potency of the Scots' lineup, the Yeomen were not satisfied with the four-run lead, adding two more in the bottom of the eighth on sac flies by Hutson and Whitener.
 
Scots would put two on in the ninth, but historic outcome was never in doubt, as Dominy did not allow a run on two hits in his two innings of work.
 
Jeff Schweighoffer, who bated .467 (7-of-15) in the tournament, joined Whitener, Bliss and Sklar on the all-tournament team. Freshman pitcher Sean Kiley also accompanied them after his masterful performance against the Scots on Thursday.
 
Oberlin will now wait to see where they will be headed and whom they will be playing when the NCAA releases the official bracket on Sunday evening.