The Oberlin baseball team had a rough week, losing all of their five games. The Yeomen dropped a pair of weekend double-headers at Allegheny. On Wednesday, April 12, the Yeomen lost to non-league opponent Case Western Reserve.

In the first game against Allegheny, Oberlin scored only two runs, one in the first and one sixth. Junior captain Seth Binder was driven in by junior Jesse Cullen-DuPont in the first. Senior captain Chad Cutting scored without any hits in the inning in the sixth.

Sophomore pitcher Alex Suguria pitched well, but ran into trouble in the fifth. With two outs in the inning, Suguria gave up an RBI single and then a two-run homerun to Allegheny’s Dirk Bonessa. These three runs would prove to be the winning runs.

Oberlin needed one run in the top of the seventh to try to extend the game, but Allegheny pitcher Drew Scibetta finished off his complete game with a 1-2-3 inning to seal the first game 3-2.

In the second game, Oberlin got on the board in the third with a three-run homerun by senior captain Jon Sheehan. Allegheny, however, responded with six runs in the bottom half of the third off of junior starter Jaremy Rich.

The Yeomen scored a single run in the fifth and sixth to pull within a run going into the top half of the seventh, the same situation they faced in their previous game. This time Oberlin was able to get the lead man on and advance him to second with a sacrifice bunt. Oberlin couldn’t find that clutch hit to drive him in, and lost game two 6-5.

Sunday did not turn out to be much better for Oberlin. The Yeomen lost game one 9-2 after surrendering eight runs in the second inning. Allegheny scored six in the fourth inning and four in the sixth inning of the second game of the day, on their way to a 13-2 rout.

Switching back to non-conference play during the week, Oberlin faced Case Western. Poor weather compounded the Yeomen’s recent woes. There was a brisk wind for the duration of the game and there was also an hour-long rain delay that included a thunderstorm with some hail. It would have been better for Oberlin had the game not been restarted.

The delay came during the top half of the seventh after Case Western took the lead 4-3. Had the game been called, the score would’ve reverted to 3-3 since Case Western had an extra half-inning at the plate. The game, however, was finished and Case Western held on to win 4-3.

Even though Oberlin went 0-3 this week in one-run games, some good may come out of it. With just a break here or there, playing in close games could result in wins for Oberlin.

“As long as we keep them close for the rest of the season, I’m sure we’ll come out on top in plenty of them,” said Rich.

Oberlin’s record now stands at 7-16. The Yeomen will look to get back on the winning track with a weekend double-header at Wittenberg University at 1 p.m. on Saturday.