Baseball team splits doubleheader at Wilmington

WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Olivet College baseball team split a pair of high-scoring games in a non-conference doubleheader against Wilmington (Ohio) College today at Tewksbury-Delaney Field. In the opener, junior James Harris tied a single-game record and senior Brendan Redding pitched eight solid innings to lead the Comets to a 14-5 win. Wilmington salvaged the split by winning the second game, 18-8.

Final Score: Olivet 14, Wilmington 5; Wilmington 18, Olivet 8 (7)
Location: Tewksbury-Delaney Field; Wilmington, Ohio
Records: Olivet 5-5 overall, Wilmington 8-6 overall

• The Quakers took a 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the bottom of first inning.
• Junior James Harris cut the Comets' deficit in half with a solo home run in the second inning.
• In the third, senior Matt Fisher stole home, senior Logan Sella hit a two-run home run and Harris lined an RBI-double to make the score 5-1.
• Wilmington got a single run back in the fourth inning.
• Olivet made the score 10-3 with a five-run fifth inning. Harris had another RBI-double and later scored on a wild pitch. Senior Matt Hewitt added a two-run single before Sella capped the scoring with an RBI-single.
• The Comets added another run in the seventh inning on Sella's sacrifice fly to make the score 11-4.
• Olivet pushed across two runs in the eighth inning on an RBI-triple by junior Gabriel Kirck and RBI-single by Harris.
• The Comets and Quakers both plated runs in the ninth to create the 14-5 final score.

• At the plate, Olivet collected 18 hits.
• Harris went 5-for-6. He was a triple shy of hitting for a cycle, with two singles, two doubles and one home run. Harris drove in four runs.
• Sella was 3-for-4 with four RBI.
• Hewitt also tallied three hits and drove in two runs.
• Senior Ben Compton scored three runs.
• On the mound, Redding picked-up his second win of the season. He threw eight innings, allowing four runs on nine hits.

• Harris is only the fourth Comet since the 2003 season to have five hits in a game. His 10 total bases are the third-most for a game.
• Olivet's 30 total bases are tied for the fourth-most in a game since the 2003 season.

• The Quakers recorded 10 hits, nine singles and one double.
• Evan Kelsey, Jesse Reliford, Caleb Scott and Tyler Shaneyfelt each tallied two hits.
• Scott registered two RBI.
• Shaneyfelt scored twice.
• Austin Christman was charged with the pitching loss. He gave up nine runs on seven hits and struck out seven over the first four and two-third innings.

• Wilmington scored three runs in the home half of the first inning.
• Olivet answered with a pair of runs in the top half of the second. Compton's single and Harris' double put two runners in scoring position, and senior John Kortz brought them home with a double to the right-center field gap.
• The Quakers broke the game open with a single tally in the third, four runs in the fifth and six runs in the sixth to go up 14-2.
• The Comets closed the gap to six runs at 14-8 with a six-run seventh inning. Kortz hit a solo home run to lead off the inning and Compton blasted a grand slam home run to end the inning.
• Wilmington put four more runs on the scoreboard in the last half of the seventh to push its lead back to double digits and end the game early due to the 10-run mercy rule.

• Olivet had nine hits, including two doubles and two home runs.
• Compton went 3-for-4, with two runs scored and four RBI.
• Kortz tallied two hits.
• Senior Max Daust suffered the pitching loss after yielding eight runs (seven earned) on 11 hits over the first five innings.
• Three relief pitchers combined to give up 10 runs on nine hits.

• The Quakers totaled 20 hits.
• Caleb Scott was a perfect 4-for-4 with three doubles to go along with four runs scored.
• Reliford, Shaneyfelt and Jared Lammert each registered three hits.
• Lammert drove in six runs.
• David Ernst earned the pitching win. He allowed eight runs (four earned) on nine hits over six and two-thirds innings. Tre Nixon got the final out in the seventh.

• Olivet heads to Cincinnati, Ohio, this weekend for a three-game series at Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) University. The teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader Saturday, starting at 1 p.m., and a single game Sunday at 12 p.m.