MARIETTA, Ohio - In a game with a lot of offense it was the defense that cost Marietta College. The top seeded Pioneers committed five errors that led to four unearned runs and were defeated by John Carroll University 11-8 Friday (May 9) afternoon in the 2014 Ohio Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament.

The Blue Steaks improve to 23-14 on the season, while the Pioneers fall to 29-13 overall.

"(When you have five errors) you don't win against anybody, especially a quality opponent," Marietta College head coach Brian Brewer said. "They played harder than us for the majority of the game. And we gave them extra bases. We have to play cleaner and we have to play harder."

On the bump for the Blue Streaks was junior Andrew Doring. Doring (3-2) notched the win for John Carroll throwing six innings, allowing six runs, five earned while striking out four and walking three. Jason Byers (10-1) was tagged with his first loss of the year. Byers allowed eight runs, five earned on eight hits.

For the second straight game John Carroll started off with hot bats. After a lead off walk and a strike out, John Carroll hit three consecutive doubles to jump out to a early 3-0 lead, a Mark Huddle single plated a fourth run in the Blue Streak first inning.

"In these first two games we've jumped out and got that momentum," John Carroll head coach Marc Thibeault said. "We want to keep that and our bullpen did an excellent job."

The lead stood until the top seeded Pioneers came up in the lower half of the third inning. Tyler Packanik led off the inning getting hit by a pitch. After a single and heads up base running by Tim McCoy put runners on second and third, two wild pitches plated both runners cutting the lead in half.

The Pioneers reignited the inning with some two out thunder. Ryan Hanahan singled to drive in Christian Demko who had walked earlier in the inning. Ryan Annett drew a bases loaded walk to plate Josh Ungerbuehler who reached by getting hit by a pitch, to knot the game at four apiece.

The Blue Streaks responded with a pair of runs in the fifth inning and another pair in the sixth inning. Chet Lauer and Rob Cifelli scored an unearned run to give the lead back to John Carroll in the fifth. Lauer picked up two more ribbies in the sixth with a two-out single.

"I was just trying to get it up the middle," Lauer said. "It got over the pitcher's head and two guys got in. I kept it up the middle and it worked out."

Marietta College wasn't going to go away without a fight.  In the seventh inning Demko hit a homerun to left-center field to cut the lead to 8-6.  A Chris Winpigler double plated Ungerbuehler later in the inning to trim the Blue Streak lead to one run.

The Blue Streaks added insurance in the top of the ninth inning with a Tyler Gentile three-run blast to left-center field and ended the hopes of a Pioneer comeback.

Ryan Hanahan added a solo homerun in the ninth for Marietta to make the final three-run margin.

Lauer finished 2-for-3 with three RBI's and Gentile went 2-for-4 with four RBI's.

John Carroll advances to the Championship game for the first time since 1998, when Coach Thibeault was a senior at John Carroll.

The loss drops Marietta into the loser's bracket where it will play the winner of Baldwin Wallace and Heidelberg Friday evening for the right to face John Carroll in the Championship.