TIFFIN, Ohio — Marietta College used a four-run seventh inning rally to come from behind and defeat No. 5 ranked Baldwin Wallace University 7-5 Thursday (May 7) afternoon in the first round of the Ohio Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament. The Pioneers improve to 25-15 on the season, while Baldwin Wallace slips to 31-9 overall.

The Etta Express advances into the winner's bracket and will face top-seeded and No. 9 ranked Heidelberg University on Friday at 9:30 a.m. The Student Princes downed John Carroll 8-1 to open the tournament.

Baldwin Wallace jumped on Pioneer ace Christian Herstine for two runs in the first inning. A pair of Pioneers errors aided the Yellow Jacket rally.

Senior Chris Winpigler cut the deficit in half with a solo home run over the leftfield wall in the second. The Pioneers plated two more in the third for a 3-2 lead. Mitch Geers led off with a double and then scored on an RBI-single from Ryan Hanahan, who would eventually score on a sac fly from Chris Petrucci.

Herstine allowed another unearned run in the fifth to knot the score at 3-3. Herstine worked 6.0 innings and allowed three runs, one earned, on five base hits. He walked three and struck out three.

Freshman Ian Luttrell (4-0) tossed 3.0 innings of strong relief for the win. He gave up two runs on four hits and walked one.

Trailing 4-3 heading into the home half of the seventh inning, the Etta Express sent 10 hitters to the plate turning the one-run deficit into a three-run lead. Hanahan had his second run-scoring single and Brandon Papp smacked a two-run, two-out double.

The Yellow Jackets tried to rally in the ninth scoring one run before Luttrell closed the door. With the tying run at the plate, Luttrell got the BW cleanup hitter to pop up and then induced a game ending ground out.

Winpigler led the Pioneer offense going 3-for-4 with a double, a home run and two runs scored. Hanahan finished with two hits and two RBI, while Geers had a pair of base hits including a double.

Mark Zimmerman started on the mound for the Yellow Jackets and threw 4.0 innings. He allowed three runs on three hits with five walks and five strikeouts. Logan Heffernan (4-2) took the loss after giving up two runs on two hits in 2.1 innings of work.