MARIETTA, Ohio — Marietta College won its home opener with a dominating 11-0 shutout victory over Johnson and Wales University Thursday (Mar. 14) afternoon at Pioneer Park. The Etta Express improves to 6-7 on the season. Johnson and Wales move to 5-3 overall.
 
Three Pioneer pitchers combined to strikeout 14 Wildcats. Trent Valentine (2-0) started and threw 5.0 innings. He scattered four hits, walked two and struck out seven. Forrest Havanis had five strikeouts in 3.0 innings, while Zach Marzetz struck out two of the three batters he faced in the ninth.
 
Marietta grabbed the lead in the bottom of the first. Cael Magill led off with a walk and moved to second on a single up the middle from Alex Richter. Magill moved over to third on a groundout and scored on a sac fly from Cooper Fiehrer.
 
The top of the Pioneer batting order got things going again in the third, Magill singled and Richter doubled to the wall in left center scoring Magill. Ben Kaplin hit a sharp ground ball that clipped Richter on the foot. Richter was called out on the play and Kaplin was credited with a single.
 
Kaplin quickly stole second base and moved to third on a single from Fiehrer. Cole Rieman followed with a single to right driving in Kaplin and moving Fiehrer to second. A Wildcat fielding error allowed Fiehrer to score for a 4-0 Pioneer lead.
 
Nick Kumor drove in a run with a groundout in the fifth. Cole Yeager made it 6-0 with an RBI triple later in the inning.
 
Marietta put the game out of reach with five more runs in the seventh. Nick Bonnizzio plated the first run on a ground ball in the infield. Yeager lined a two-run double to right and then scored on an RBI single from Jeremy Tonelli. The final run of the inning scored on an error.
 
Rieman led the Pioneer offense with four hits. Richter finished 3-for-4 with a double. Magill, Fiehrer and Yeager each had two hits in the game. Yeager had a double, a triple and drove in three runs, while Fiehrer scored three times.
 
Marietta plays Eastern Connecticut State University on Saturday (Mar. 16) at noon.