Baseball Has Eight Victories After Hiram Defeat
by Colin Smith

Earlier in the season, the Oberlin baseball team had its sights on 15 wins — the Oberlin College record. With eight wins under their belts and most likely (weather-allowing) just six games left to play, the team will not reach that mark. But despite coming short of this goal, the season has been a resounding success for Oberlin baseball.
This is not the winningest team in Oberlin history. But by defeating Hiram last weekend, it became the winningest Oberlin baseball team in over a decade. The 15-win mark was last reached in 1988. Since then no Oberlin team had won more then seven games — until this season.
The victory over Hiram, part of a doubleheader split, was also the Yeomen’s second North Coast Athletic Conference win of the season. Oberlin has not won more than two conference games since 1989, but the 2002 squad will have a chance to make it three when they play their final NCAC game of the season on Saturday — a nine-inning game at Hiram, making up for a washout last weekend. With a win, the Yeomen would also tie Hiram for fourth in the final NCAC East division standings.
Sophomore Troy DeWitt was near-perfect in the 3-0 win over Hiram, tossing a complete game one-hit, one-walk shutout gem. In seven innings he struck out seven and now has 60 strikeouts in 59 1/3 innings of work. He also improved his record to 4-4.
DeWitt now needs only two strikeouts and one win to tie the best marks by a Yeoman pitcher in those categories since Oberlin helped found the NCAC in 1983.
“Troy has really grown over the last year,” Head Coach Eric Lahetta said. “He struggled as a freshman, but really learned from his experiences. [He] gives us a chance every time out.”
The Yeomen gave DeWitt all the support he would need when they pushed across a run on two Hiram errors in the first.
“We didn’t really hit the ball too good,” sophomore B.J. Belville said, “but we got some timely hits.”

Unfortunately, Oberlin did not get quite enough of those in the second game. The Yeomen came close to their third NCAC victory, but lost after four innings of extra baseball.
Oberlin trailed 4-3 with sophomore Ian Haynes on second and two out in the seventh inning. A Hiram error allowed Haynes to score, sending the game to extra innings.
However, Oberlin failed to put together a serious scoring threat in extra innings. Sophomore Peter Wyatt, who had held Hiram to one run on three hits over five and two thirds innings of relief, finally yielded in the bottom of the 11th. Two walks and a single brought home the winning run for Hiram.
“Wyatt pitched a terrific game in relief of [first-year starter Ryan] Drews,” Lahetta said. “Our lack of offense even drove Pete to begin talking to the bats.”
“We’re still growing,” Belville said of getting key hits. “That’ll come together as we grow as a team.”

On Tuesday, the Yeomen played a doubleheader against Kenyon. Kenyon had the Yeomen’s number, defeating them 8-3 and 8-0. The first game, a make-up, counted in the conference standing, while the second had been previously unscheduled.
Belville summed up the pair of games in one sentence: “We pretty much played shitty.”
Among the few highlights in the games was first-year Kyle Neumeier’s homer in game one — the first of his college career.
Most recently, the Yeomen made up a postponed game against the College of Wooster’s Fighting Scots. Since Oberlin had last heard from the Scots, they had moved from number three to number one in the Division III poll and beaten Division I Ohio State — leaders of the Big 10 — 9-7.
Still, the Yeomen held with the favorites for much of the game. They claimed a 2-1 lead in the third, before Wooster stormed back with four in the fourth.
“We came out and got great pitching from Drews,” Belville said. “We hit the ball pretty well, but they’re the number one team in the nation.”
After five, Oberlin was still within striking distance at 6-3, but Wooster took over in the final four innings.
Lahetta said that when playing a team like Wooster “you almost have to have a perfect day. We hang in there for awhile and then their experience takes over. They have that ‘killer’ mentality.”

Oberlin will likely play a seven-inning game at Hiram in addition to the nine-inning contest, but it will not count toward the conference standings. The Yeomen will follow that up on Sunday by making up a doubleheader at Pennsylvania University at Behrend, before returning home for a twin bill against Grove City to end the season on Tuesday. There will be plenty of baseball for the Yeomen in the next four days as they try to improve on an already-significant record.
“I would really like to see the team play fundamentally sound baseball. Minimize mistakes, take advantage of opportunities given and win a few ball games,” Lahetta said. “All these games are opportunities for our young players to continue to gain experience. It will really help the program in the future.”

May 3
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