WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Wilmington College baseball team won the first game of their doubleheader with the Mount Union Purple Raiders, 4-3, before losing the second game 10-3 on Saturday at Tewksbury-Delaney Field.
In the first game, Max Gildea walked with the bases loaded in the ninth to bring home the winning run.
The Purple Raiders scored the first run of the game in the first inning, before starter Max Gildea began to shut them down. From this point on, he only allowed a pair of base runners over his next six innings on the mound.
The Quakers wouldn’t score any runs until the bottom of the fifth inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, Gildea came through for himself with a two RBI single through the left side of the infield to give Wilmington a 2-1 lead. Both runs were unearned due to a Purple Raiders error earlier in the frame.
Mount Union would finally get to Gildea in the eighth inning and force him out of the contest after a two-RBI two-out single gave them a 3-2 lead. Nathan Powers came in and got a groundout to end the inning.
Wilmington scored the tying run in the eighth on a Carter Scheben sacrifice fly to center field after Gildea and Kyle Jennings both got hits to start the frame. Powers put the Purple Raiders away one, two, three in the top of the ninth.
The Quakers nearly won the game on an Evan Kelsey single to left field in the ninth, but a beautiful throw cut down Eli Hollingsworth at the plate and kept the game alive. It was all for nothing though as Jay Utterdyke singled to load the bases before a bases loaded Gildea walk won the game for the Quakers.
Jared Lammert had a game-high three hits and scored two runs. Gildea had a game-high three runs batted in (RBI) along with two hits. Evan Kelsey and Kyle Jennings also had two hits in the game.
Gildea threw a gem on the mound, going 7.2 innings, allowing six hits and three runs, while striking out six Purple Raiders.
In the second game, Mount Union held a 3-0 lead after the first two innings of play. A JP Donelan triple over the right fielder’s head got Wilmington rolling in the third inning. J.C. Calhoun singled him in to make it a 3-1 game. Later in the inning, Calhoun scored on an Evan Kelsey groundout for a 3-2 game.
The Quakers had a golden chance to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth after Calhoun singled and reached third on a pickoff attempt that got past the first baseman into right field with no one out. A pair of strikeouts followed before Kelsey reached on catcher’s interference before a strikeout ended the inning.
After two outs, three straight walks loaded the bases for Wilmington in the sixth and forced a new Purple Raiders pitcher. However, a foul out ended the frame. Mount Union scored seven runs over the eighth and ninth innings to put the game out of reach for the Quakers.
J.C. Calhoun led Wilmington with three hits and Jared Lammert had two hits. Three Quakers had one run batted in (RBI) and one run scored.
Hayden Wibbeler kept the Quakers alive in the middle innings, throwing four strong frames and only allowing two runs, with both coming in his final inning of work. He only allowed one hit with no walks.
The Quakers are back home Tuesday at Tewksbury-Delaney Field for a single game with Franklin College at 4 p.m. They lost to the Grizzlies earlier in the season, 20-9.
