Quakers use comeback magic
to nip Wittenberg

WC overcomes 7-1 deficit to post win

[Box Score]

April 5, 2006

Ronnie Campbell

What goes around comes around. Just ask Wilmington College head baseball coach Tony Haley.

A day after Wilmington let a 7-1 lead slip away in an 8-7 loss at Hanover, the Quakers came back from a 7-1 deficit to beat Wittenberg, 8-7, Wednesday at Tewksbury-Delaney Field.

"Our guys never quit," Haley said. "We had a little meeting. Normally, we stay away from meetings and just go out and play hard. But we told them before the game that last night we didn't play all nine innings and we got beat. I told them today we were going to play all nine. Wittenberg's good. We knew they were going to hit it, but we just kept battling back."

Ben Buehner (Germantown/Valley View) hit the first of Wilmington's four home runs to give the Quakers a 1-0 lead in the first inning, a score that held up until Wittenberg took advantage of three Wilmington errors to put six on the board in the third inning. The Tigers pushed the lead to 7-1 with a run in the fourth.

Wilmington got single runs in the fourth and fifth, then scored three in the sixth as Mike Kroeger (Cincinnati/Elder) hit a mammoth solo homer and Jimmy Wolverton (London/Madison Plains) ripped a two-run blast that cut Wittenberg's lead to 7-6.

"When Jimmy hit that home run, you could just feel that we were going to come back and win," Haley said. "It just pumped life into everybody."

The score was 7-6 when the Quakers came up in the ninth. Taylor Clark (Morrow/McCallie, Tenn.) reached on an error, then scored the tying run on Greg Krieger's third hit of the game, a double to right-center. After a walk to pinch-hitter Tom Harter (Westlake) and a fielder's choice that forced Krieger (Bellefontaine) at third, designated hitter Matt Morris (Hamilton) laced a single that scored Harter with the game-winner.

Wilmington pounded out 13 hits — seven of which went for extra bases — to raise their overall record to 6-7. Wittenberg is now 12-10.

Ronnie Campbell (Lynchburg/Lynchburg-Clay) started for WC and allowed four earned runs in four innings. With the exception of their third inning implosion, the Quakers shut down Wittenberg. Kenny Branscom (Chillicothe) pitched a scoreless ninth inning and picked up his second win of the season.

"When we get good quality pitching and play good defense, we can be right up there," Haley said. "It's a crazy game."