DEFIANCE, Ohio - Transylvania Baseball remained hot and improved to 25-6 on the season after earning the series win in the Saturday doubleheader at Defiance this afternoon. The Pioneers won game one 12-6 and game two 14-4.
With the wins, Transylvania improves to 12-3 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, and earns their 4th HCAC series victory of the season. With a win tomorrow the Pioneers can sweep a conference opponent for the 3rd time this season.
Although outhit 9-10 in game one, Transylvania's timely hitting throughout the game and great base running early on lifted the Pioneers to a 6 run victory.
Luke Patton earned his 4th win of the season. He went 7 innings and gave up 2 earned runs while striking out 3 batters.
Austin Taylor led the offense with a 4-5 performance at the plate. He had 2 extra base hits and tied for the leads in RBI's in game one with 4.
Henry Mitcham finished 3-5 with 4 RBI's.
The Yellow Jackets scored first with a single to left field in the bottom of the 1st inning, but the Pioneers scored 3 runs in the 3rd innings on
Henry Mitcham's 2 RBI single.
Trent Youngblood stole home for Transy's third run of the inning.
Defiance tied things up at 3-3 in the bottom half, but the Pioneers scored the game's next 9 runs. Youngblood scored 2 in the top of the 4th inning with a double to center field. Mitcham added another RBI with a groundout, and
Austin Taylor singled to left field to score Youngblood and make it 7-3 Transy after 4 innings.
The Pioneers added 4 more in the 8th inning for the commanding 12-3 lead. Defiance would score 3 runs over the final 2 innings, but would fall to Transy 12-6.
In game two, Transylvania won their 5th consecutive game over Defiance, 14-4.
Drew Bowles earned his 4th win of the season after pitching 5 innings and striking out 6 batters.
Braden Becker and Brenna Perry combined for a 4 inning 2 hit performance while keeping the Yellow Jackets scoreless in the final 5 innings.
After finding themselves down 3 runs early, Transy responded with 8 consecutive runs over the 3rd and 4th innings for an 8-3 lead. Defiance doubled in the bottom of the 4th to cut the lead to 8-4, but would be shutout the rest of the game. The Pioneers would score 6 more runs the rest of the game for the 14-4 win.
The Pioneers outhit the Yellow Jackets 14-7, and played clean defensive baseball, finishing with 0 errors.
Austin Taylor finished the game 3-5 with 3 RBI's.
Trent Youngblood was 1-4 with 3 RBI's and had a 2 run home run in the 9th inning, his 7th of the season.
Henry Mitcham was 2-5 with 2 RBI's.
Calvin Schubert,
Ezra Yi, and
Bryce Dreher all had an extra base hit in the win.
Houston Manning earned his first hit and RBI of the season.
The Pioneers move to 17-6 all time vs Defiance. The two teams will meet again tomorrow afternoon for the series finale. The Pioneers will look for their third conference sweep of the season. It will also be the final time both teams compete against each other in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference as Defiance will move to the NAIA next season.
