DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Defiance Yellow Jackets won both games in comeback fashion during their Senior Day doubleheader against the Earlham Quakers, 7-4 and 12-9, to finish the 2024 season on Sunday at Rutter Field.
The Yellow Jackets closed the campaign by winning 3 of 4 to end the season and earned the team's first home wins since May 2022. The sweep was the first time the Jackets won both games in a conference doubleheader since May 5, 2019 against Mount St. Joseph. DC was also the spoiler of Earlham's HCAC Tournament hopes as the Quakers needed to win twice to stay alive for the conference's postseason competition.
Game 1 - Defiance 7, Earlham 4
Gunner Gregg headlined DC's first win on their home field in two years by hitting for the cycle for his first-career four-hit game and locked down his fifth save of the campaign on mound.
After Earlham scored three in the first inning, Gregg led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on an Earlham error one hitter later. In the third, he evened the score at 3-3 when he muscled a two-run homer over the center field fence. He added a single during the fifth and gave the Jackets an insurance run in the seventh when he doubled to left-center to bring Tyler Dehan around from first base to make the score 6-3.
Senior pitcher Johnny Hammerstein earned his second victory of the campaign in his final career start after shaking off three early runs. He worked a 1-2-3 second to start a run of three straight scoreless innings. After allowing one in the fifth, he used a 3-6-3 double play to preserve DC's one-run lead at the time. Hammerstein gave way to Gavin Bragg in relief with two outs in the sixth, who worked an inning-ending groundout. Bragg went on to work 2.1 scoreless innings and did not yield a hit. His only baserunner reached on an error and he bounced back with a fly out and strikeout to strand the runner at second.
Offensively, Mitchell Roever added RBIs to break the 3-3 tie in the fourth and brought in the last run of the game on a double in the eighth. Alex Rodriguez III also landed an RBI single during DC's two-run fourth. Dehan also worked a pair of important walks and scored twice on Gregg extra-base hits.
Game 2 - Defiance 12, Earlham 9
The Yellow Jackets saved some of their best offense of the year for the last go-round, hammering out a season-high 17 hits in the final game of the season. All nine members of the starting lineup had at least one knock in the thrilling comeback.
After falling behind early 8-1 through an inning and a half, Defiance charged back with four in the second inning in what began a monster day at the plate for Garret Long. With the bases full following a sacrifice fly and a walk, Long unloaded on his second double of the game to plate three more runs. After pitching settled in through the middle innings, DC got one in the sixth before a big seventh inning changed the contest. Defiance started the inning with three singles to grab one run before it was Long who delivered another big knock, a three-run homer off the left field scoreboard to lift the Yellow Jackets to their first lead of the contest. One inning later, the Jackets get another homer from Gregg to pad their lead to three runs.
Logan Kunkel delivered an admirable performance on the mound to earn his first win of the 2024 season. After Jeremy Russo and Aidan Behrman shouldered Earlham's first eight runs of the game, Kunkel took Defiance the rest of the way home and fanned six hitters for a new career-best. He also pitched a career-high 7.1 and held the Quakers to just one run on eight hits to keep the door open for the offense to rally back.
BRINGING THE STING
Gunner Gregg had a huge day by going a combined 6-for-9 with two home runs, six RBIs, and scored five times. Aside from hitting for the cycle with a career-best four hits in Game 1, he improved on his career-best in home runs for a season to finish with six and a career-best 25 RBIs. Gregg's fifth save of the season placed him fifth place in program history for saves in a single season and is tied for seventh for a career after his junior year.
Garret Long had a career day that included his first home run as a Yellow Jacket. Going 4-for-5 with six RBIs in Game 2, Long finished 5-for-9 with two doubles, one homer, and scored three times.
Alex Rodriguez enjoyed a pair of multi-hit games with two hits plus an RBI in each game. He was 4-for-9 with two RBIs for the afternoon.
Tyler Dehan was tough out as well and scored five total runs thanks to three walks, one hit by pitch and a 2-for-3 showing in Game 2.
Connor Gephart reached base with a walk in Game 1 despite going 0-for-3 and added a single in Game 2. By reaching base in each contest, he extended his on-base streak to 27 games and was reached base in 35 of 36 games played this season.
DC's seniors each had their moment on their final day as Yellow Jackets. Johnny Hammerstein earned the win in his last appearance during Game 1. Jeremy Russo made his first start of the season and the first starting nod at home for his four-year career. Mitchell Roever went 2-for-7 with a double and two RBIs on the day, and Trent Murdock was 2-for-7 and got on base four times in the final game of the campaign.
UP NEXT
The Yellow Jackets complete the season 9-28 and 4-18 in the HCAC to close out Defiance's Division III era with wins in their final two games as members of the HCAC.