Greencastle, Ind. – The Oberlin College baseball team earned a commanding 11-1 win over the DePauw University Tigers on Sunday afternoon to secure its spot in the four-team North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament this week in Chillicothe, Ohio.
 
Oberlin, which was seeded fourth in the NCAC East after finishing 4-12 in league play, defeated the top-seeded Tigers from the West in the best of three crossover series to make its second trip to the tournament in the last three years and second in school history.
 
The Yeomen's senior class accounted for 11 of the team's 13 hits in the victory with Benjamin Whitener leading the way by going 2-for-3 with two home runs, two walks, three runs  scored and six RBIs.
 
Freshman sidearmer Milo Sklar was dominant on the mound as he worked 8.1 innings, allowing just the one run on seven hits and five walks. He threw 126 pitches with 79 of those going for strikes en route to punching out a career-high eight.
 
Seniors Jeff Schweighoffer, Kyle Decker and Mitch Novak along with sophomore Justin Cruz all matched Whitener with two hits each.
 
The Yeomen played in front from the onset, plating a pair of runs in the top of the first on Whitener's two-run bomb over the wall in right field. Andrew Hutson jogged home on the shot after reaching on an infield single to shortstop.
 
Oberlin would create more separation in the fourth, using four hits and error to add on four more runs in the inning. Ryan Bliss set the first run across on an opposite-field single down the left field line and he would later score the third run of the inning on a Tigers' error. Prior the miscue, catcher Blaise Dolcemaschio lined out to center, but it was deep enough to score Baldocchi for a sacrifice.  Decker would make it a 6-0 Yeomen advantage with a two-out run-scoring single through the right side, putting an end to the day for DePauw starter Riley Futterknecht after four complete innings.
 
After working a clean inning in the fifth, relief pitcher Mike Hammel didn't fare any better than Futterknecht in the sixth as the Yeomen roughed him up for five runs on four hits all with two outs.  Cruz doubled down the right field line and came around to score on a single to center by Schweighoffer. After a single by Decker and a walk to Hutson, Whitener stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and hit a grand slam over the wall in right for his fifth home run of the year and sixth of his career.
 
With an 11-0 lead now in hand, Sklar continued to deal, keeping the Tigers scoreless until there were two outs in the eighth.  He is now 2-4 on the year.
 
The Yeomen enter the NCAC Tournament with a record of 15-25 overall and 6-13 in the NCAC.
 
Oberlin will open the tournament on Thursday afternoon against Allegheny College with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.