The Oberlin College baseball team wrapped up the 2006 season with a tough loss to Lake Erie College. Senior Steve Solomon, pitching his final game in the crimson and gold, was sharp, but Lake Erie rallied against the Yeomen bullpen.

Junior Seth Binder and senior Chad Kutting led off the game with back-to-back singles, putting runners on first and third. One out later, Kutting stole second and Binder scored when the Lake Erie catcher recorded an error on the play.

With two down, Kutting scored off a single by junior Rick Betzel to give Oberlin the early 2-0 lead.

Oberlin scored in the third and seventh, with one run each inning. Kutting scored his second run of the game when junior Jesse Cullen-DuPont knocked him home in the third. Binder hit a two-out triple to score senior Nick Broughton from first in the seventh inning.

Oberlin had a 4-0 lead into the seventh inning. Solomon had scattered three hits over the first six innings while striking out three.

However, Solomon wasn’t as sharp in the seventh, as Lake Erie finally started to catch on to his style. After loading the bases on a hit, a walk and a hit batter with one out, Solomon gave up a two-run single to Lake Erie’s Rocky Pfisterer.

The damage in the inning was limited when Lake Erie’s Steve Walczak got caught on the base paths. This single, though, would spell the end of Solomon’s great pitching performance. Junior Jaremy Rich came in from the pen to end the Lake Erie threat.

Rich, however, failed to record an out in the eighth as he gave up four runs and the lead. All of a sudden Oberlin was facing a 7-4 deficit going into the top half of the ninth after cruising through much of the game with the lead.

The Yeomen could not muster any sort of rally in the ninth and dropped their season finale.

Oberlin finished the season with a 10-27 overall record, went 2-14 in NCAC play and finished with a disappointing 2-8 mark at home. The Yeomen had high hopes going into the season, but these hopes never quite materialized.

Several members of the team declined to comment on the Lake Erie game or the season in general due to the disappointment of both. One team member explained that it would be better to ask for a comment next season, as there would hopefully be something more positive for the players to say.

Despite a poor record, the Yeomen did manage to have some bright marks this season. Binder set the new Oberlin single season record with 43 hits.

The high point of the season may have come on Thursday, April 13 when the Yeomen swept Myers University in a doubleheader. Oberlin won the first game of the doubleheader in an extra-inning thriller and then went on to rout Myers in the second game.

The Yeomen will look to put this season behind them and improve. The team graduates only five seniors in Broughton, Solomon, Kutting, Landon Lerner and Joe Sheehan. With a strong core of players returning, the team is hopeful that the 2007 season will be a more competitive one.