DELAWARE, Ohio — The No. 21 ranked Marietta College baseball team opened the 2017 season with a key in-region doubleheader sweep at Ohio Wesleyan University Sunday (March 5) afternoon. The Pioneers took the first game, 4-1, and then completed the sweep with a 19-2 shellacking in the nitecap.

Senior Tyler Nieberding (1-0) threw 7.0 strong innings to get the win in game one. Nieberding scattered five hits and allowed just one run. He walked one and struck out six. David Stover notched his first save of the season with 2.0 innings of one-hit, shutout relief.

Marietta scored three runs in the second inning. Greg Peffley reached on an error and moved to second on a single off the bat of Connor Golden. A sac bunt from Jonathan Pingree moved both runners up 90-feet.

Tanner Wood ripped a triple down the leftfield line scoring Peffley and Golden. Seamus Kenneally drove in Wood with a ground ball to the shortstop giving the Pioneers a 3-0 lead.

Ohio Wesleyan got one run back in the bottom of the fifth inning. Mitchell Johnson led off with a double and moved to third on a single from Dalton Henderson. Johnson scored on a ground out by Carter Franklin.

Pingree launched a home run over the leftfield fence to start the top of the sixth inning making it 4-1 in favor of the Etta Express.

Peffley, Wood and Chris Petrucci each had two hits in the game for Marietta.

Marietta scored early and often in game two. The Pioneers jumped on Ohio Wesleyan starting pitcher Seth Pritchett for five runs in the first inning.

Aided by a pair of OWU errors, the Express batted around in the first frame. Eric White drove in the first run with an RBI single. Peffley plated two more with a single to leftfield. Marietta's final two runs scored on a throwing error.

The Battling Bishops scored an unearned run in the bottom of the frame and that would be all they get off of Pioneer starter Ian Luttrell (1-0). Luttrell worked 4.0 innings and allowed one run on one hit. He walked two and struck out two. Five other Pioneers each worked an inning of relief.

Marietta added four runs in the fourth and exploded for seven more in the fifth and then added three in the eighth. The Pioneers banged out 20 total hits in the game

White, Peffley, Pingree and Chandler Palyas each had three hits in the game. All nine starters in the Pioneer offensive lineup had at least one hit in the win.

Marietta opens an eight-game Florida swing next Sunday (March 12). The Pioneers play Susquehanna University at 9:00 a.m. and St. John Fisher College at noon.