NEW CONCORD, Ohio — Marietta College junior pitcher Sam Mathews faced one batter over the minimum in the last five innings of the game as No. 6 ranked Marietta College defeated Muskingum University, 5-4, Friday (April 23) afternoon.
The Etta Express improves to 19-3 overall and 17-2 in the Ohio Athletic Conference. Muskingum falls to 7-10-1 on the season and 7-8-1 in conference games. With rain in the forecast for Saturday, the two teams will play a doubleheader on Sunday. First pitch at Pioneer Park is slated for 1 p.m.
Mathews (4-1) took over on the mound for Marietta to start the fifth inning and dominated the Muskie hitters to record his fourth win of the season. He struck out seven and retired 10 straight Muskingum hitters at one point shutting out the Muskies for five innings.
Gino Sabatine started for the Pioneers and worked 4.0 innings. He gave up four runs, three earned, on five base hits. Sabatine walked one and struck out five.
Muskingum jumped out to an early lead with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Sabatine walked the first batter of the game and then surrendered an RBI double to Devin Ryan. He quickly settled down and retired the next three batters, including a pair of strikeouts, to get out of the inning.
The Muskie lead didn't last long. Marietta took advantage of two Muskingum errors and scored two unearned runs in the top of the second.
Aided by a Pioneer error, Muskingum regained the lead with three runs in the fourth inning. Brett Carson led off with a single through the left side of the infield. Chayce Lundell dropped down a sacrifice bunt that was misplayed giving the Muskies runners at first and second with no outs.
Trey Yoder loaded the bases with a base hit bunt. Ryan Schwartz followed with a two-run double to left scoring Carson and Lundell. Nick Congrove plated Yoder with a groundout to the shortstop. Sabatine struck out the next two batters to end the threat.
Once again, Marietta answered right back scoring three runs in the fifth inning to take a 5-4 lead. Jared Weiss reached on a one-out single. After Turner Hill popped up for the second out, Damian Yenzi reached base on an infield single.
Alex Page ripped a triple to the wall in right center scoring Weiss and Yenzi tying the game, 4-4. Drew Holderbach followed with a double down the leftfield line driving in Page with the go ahead run.
Marietta put runners on base in each of the final four innings but couldn't extend its lead. The Pioneers left nine runners on base in the game.
Jake Norris (3-3) started on the mound for Muskingum and was tagged with the loss. He allowed five runs, three earned, on 10 hits in 6.0innings of work. Norris walked one and struck out two. Brayden Bush threw the final 3.0 innings and allowed two hits, one walk and struck out three.
Holderbach went 3-for-4 with a double and one RBI to lead the Marietta offense. Weiss, Yenzi and Trent Castle each had two hits in the game. Page had two runs scored and two RBI.