SPECIAL DELIVERY ... Senior Clayton Reynolds delivers a pitch to the plate during Wilmington's game with Heidelberg.

Quakers drop two
to Heidelberg

Quakers' bats quieted by HC

[Game 1 Box Score]

[Game 2 Box Score]

April 29, 2006

Jimmy Wolverton

Wilmington College's chances of qualifying for the Ohio Athletic Conference baseball tournament took a torpedo Saturday as the Quakers were swept by Heidelberg, 5-2, 7-2, in a twinbill played at Tewksbury-Delaney Field.

Wilmington is now 5-9 in the OAC, 13-14 overall. Heidelberg moves to 7-7 in the conference, 22-14 overall.

"We're just not swinging the bats. We're not hitting the baseball the way this team can," WC head coach Tony Haley said. "Our pitching staff has really come on this year. We can go five or six pitchers deep to keep us in a game and give us a chance to win, but we're just not swinging it right now."

Wilmington managed just five hits off Heidelberg starter David Paddock in the opener and didn't score until junior catcher Ben Butler (Beavercreek/Carroll) delivered a two-run single in the sixth inning.

Sophomore Kenny Branscom (Chillicothe) took the loss despite throwing 6.1 innings of five-hit ball.

In game two, Heidelberg scored four second-inning runs off Wilmington starter Clayton Reynolds (Reynolds).

The Quakers got a run in the second and a Matt Morris (Hamilton) home run in the fourth, but could not push any more runs across the plate.

Senior third baseman Ben Buehner (Germantown/Valley View) had two of Wilmington's six hits in the second game.

"We're going to continue to fight," Haley said. "There will be no quit in us. We've got a bunch of games this week and we're going to try to win them all. We're going to pick it up and play hard for seven or nine innings, whatever it takes."