TIFFIN, Ohio—The Heidelberg University baseball team defeated The College of Wooster, 9-4, today in a non-conference game at Peaceful Valley in Tiffin, Ohio. The victory was the 400th in head coach Matt Palm's 13-year career. He needed just 574 games to reach the milestone.
Palm is a 1995 graduate of Wooster and played his collegiate ball for current Wooster head coach Tim Pettorini.
In the fourth inning, senior right fielder Ricardo Lizcano (Toledo/Start) drew his 101st career walk, breaking the school record. He also walked in the seventh.
Four straight Wooster (21-12, 9-3 North Coast Athletic Conference) batters reached base with two outs in the top of the first inning and the Fighting Scots moved a run across the plate on a run batted-in single by Billy Farrow, but senior left fielder Ross Pruitt (Elletsville, Ind./Edgewood) threw out Johnathan Ray trying to score from second base on Cal Thomay's single to end the inning.
Heidelberg (19-15, 7-7 Ohio Athletic Conference) put together a two-out rally in the second and took a 3-1 lead with RBI singles by sophomore designated hitter Ben Blystone (Brownsburg, Ind./Brownsburg) and sophomore shortstop Andrew Zenczak (Brunswick) sandwiched around a run-scoring double by freshman third baseman Steve Kisan (Lakewood/St. Edward).
Another RBI single by Farrow keyed a two-run inning in the third and the Scots tied the score, 3-3.
The Student Princes plated four runs in the bottom half of the fourth with back-to-back bases-loaded walks by senior center fielder Elvin Williams (Euclid) and Blystone and a two-run single by Kisan and jumped out to a 7-3 advantage.
A two-run triple by Williams in the fourth extended the Berg's lead to 9-3.
Wooster added a run in the eighth for what would prove to be the 9-4 final.
Nine different Student Princes recorded hits, led by Kisan who was 3-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored. Williams also finished the day with three RBI.
Sophomore righty Chris Thomas (Canton/Perry) pitched 7.0 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits while striking out two and earned the win to improve to 3-4. Junior righty Teddy Lowe (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) allowed just one run over the eighth and ninth to close out the game.
Farrow led the Scots at the plate by going 2-for-4 with two RBI.
Zac Sessa started for Wooster and pitched just 2.1 innings, allowing seven runs on six hits and took the loss to fall to 0-1. Zach Washinski pitched 1.2 innings of relief and allowed two runs, Jon Huisel hurled 3.0 innings and Brett DeWester pitched an inning.
Heidelberg hosts Wittenberg University tomorrow at 4 p.m. before wrapping up the week's play with a home OAC doubleheader against John Carroll University.