WESTERVILLE, Ohio — No. 12 ranked Marietta College posted a convincing 17-6 victory over Otterbein University in the regular season finale for both schools Sunday (May 7) afternoon at Dick Fishbaugh Field.
 
The Pioneers improve to 31-9 on the season, while Otterbein finishes with a 27-13 overall record. Marietta will be the No. 2 seed in next week's Ohio Athletic Conference tournament being hosted by top-seeded Baldwin Wallace. Marietta plays No. 3 seed Ohio Northern at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday (May 11). Baldwin Wallace plays No. 4 seed John Carroll at noon on Thursday.
 
The Etta Express scored in each of the first five innings building a 12-2 lead. Nick Bonnizzio led off the first inning with a walk. Alex Richter and Brett Carson both singled to load the bases for Ty Davis. Davis plated Bonnizzio and Richter with a single to right center.
 
Marietta loaded the bases with one out in the second inning. Austin Amburgey walked and Cole Yeager and Bonnizzio singled. Richter knocked in one run with a ground ball and Carson drove in another with an RBI single.
 
Four more runs in the third made it 8-0. Ben Kaplin smacked a two-run home run to left and Amburgey launched a solo home run to right center. Richter added an RBI double in the frame.
 
Otterbein got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the third. The Cardinals added one in the seventh and three more in the ninth.
 
A Cardinal error led to three runs in the fourth. Carson extended the Pioneer lead with a solo home run to lead off the fifth inning.
 
Marietta added five insurance runs in the top of the ninth. Carson drove in his third run of the game with a double. Trent Valentine and Forrest Havanis each plated one with RBI singles, while Kail Hill knocked in one run with a sac fly.
 
The Pioneers collected 20 hits in the game. Carson and Valentine each had four hits to lead the attack. Richter, Davis, Kaplin, Amburgey, and Yeager had two hits apiece.
 
Zach Marzetz (4-0) started on the mound and got the win. Marzetz worked 3.0 innings and gave up two runs on two hits with a pair of strikeouts. Gino Sabatine threw 3.0 shutout innings and allowed three hits while striking out one.
 
Jacob Rocky tossed 2.0 innings and allowed one run on one hit. Josh Pedersen was charged with three runs on three hits in one-third of an inning, while Jared Bees retired two of the three batters he faced to end the game.
 
Andrew Nemec (2-2) started for Otterbein and took the loss. He allowed four runs on six hits. The Cardinals used seven pitchers in the game.