SAFE AT THE PLATE ... Wilmington College catcher Ben Butler slides home safely after a John Carroll wild pitch in the opener of an OAC doubleheader.

Quakers, Blue Streaks
play to OAC split

WC rebounds from loss to win, 12-2

[Game 1 Box Score]

[Game 2 Box Score]

April 15, 2006

Kenny Branscom

Wilmington College bounced back from a tough extra-inning loss to John Carroll to pound the Blue Streaks, 12-2, and earn an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader split Saturday at Tewksbury-Delaney Field. Wilmington is 3-3 in the OAC, 10-8 overall. John Carroll is 3-5 in the conference, 14-10 overall.

John Carroll won the opener, 6-5, in nine innings.

"We let it get away," WC head coach Tony Haley said. "We had our chances, but we just didn't get the job done. They jumped ahead and we battled back. That's how the game went, but we just didn't get the things done we needed to win."

The opener was a duel between WC right-hander Kenny Branscom (Chillicothe) and JCU lefty Marc Vertock. The game was scoreless through four, but the Streaks scored twice in the fifth.

Wilmington responded in the home fifth with an RBI double from catcher Ben Butler (Beaverceek/Carroll), who later scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 2-2.

John Carroll scored twice in the seventh, but Wilmington forced extra innings when DH Matt Morris (Hamilton) singled in pinch-runner Brad Middendorf (Fort Loramie) and shortstop Greg Krieger (Bellefontaine) in the WC seventh.

The eighth inning offered more of the same. John Carroll got a run off Wilmington ace Jamison George (Mount Sterling/Miami Trace), but the Quakers produced the tying run in the bottom half of the inning when third baseman Ben Buehner (Germantown/Valley View) doubled and scored on Krieger's single.

The Streaks got another run off George in the top of the ninth. This time, however, the Quakers did not have an answer as JCU held on for the win.

Buehner led Wilmington's 13-hit attack in the opener with three hits. Krieger and Butler had two hits each.

Game two was finished almost as soon as it started. Wilmington scored two runs in the first, three in the second and four times in the third inning to build a 9-0 lead. That was more than enough for starter Clayton Reynolds (Blanchester), who held JCU to five hits and a run over six innings.

"This was the third straight strong performance from Clayton," Haley said. "He has just been superb. He got ahead of the hitters and we played good defense behind him. It's a shame that Kenny Branscom didn't win. He pitched well enough to win, but we just couldn't hit that lefty. But you've got to give John Carroll credit. They beat Jamison, and he is a pretty tough OAC pitcher."

Center fielder Taylor Clark (Morrow/McCallie, Tenn.) had three hits and four RBI in Wilmington's win. Buehner, Krieger, first baseman Mike Kroeger (Cincinnati/Elder), second baseman Jimmy Wolverton (London/Madison Plains) and left fielder Troy Brege (Hanover, Pa./Gettysburg) had two hits each. Kroeger drove in three runs, two coming on his fourth home run of the season.

The Quakers host Otterbein in an OAC doubleheader 1 p.m. April 18.