Etta Express defeats John Carroll in OAC semifinal
Regular season champs advance in 10-3 win
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MARIETTA -- Marietta College is two wins away from claiming its 32nd Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament championship in program history.
The Etta Express, ranked No. 6 in Division III, defeated John Carroll 10-3 in Thursday's semifinal game at Don and Sue Schaly Field at Pioneer Park. Gino Sabatine started for the OAC regular season champs and pitched five shutout innings to improve to 9-0 on the year. Sam Mathews pitched the final four frames to earn his sixth save as the Pioneers improved to 33-4.
"It's a big deal," MC skipper Brian Brewer said of the win. "Certainly one of our goals was to win the (OAC) regular season (title), and goal No. 2 is to win the conference tournament and now we have an opportunity to do that."
The Pioneers collected 12 hits in the game, with three coming from Drew Holderbach, who tripled and drove in three runs.
"(He's giving us) everything we need," Brewer said of Marietta's three-hole hitter. "He's just been on fire.
"Offensively, I thought we did a fantastic job making it a little easier on (Sabatine and Mathews). One run here, one run there. We kept on the gas pedal a little bit which was important."
Jared Weiss had two hits and two runs-batted-in while Turner Hill added a pair of bunt singles. Marietta scored in every inning it batted except the first.
John Merrill (4-5) lasted 3 2/3 innings on the hill for the Blue Streaks and was tagged with the loss. He gave up eight hits and four runs. Jack Bennett, John Gavric, Nicholas Michel, Erich Payne and Henry Darrow combined to pitch the remaining 5 1/3.
Sabatine allowed five hits, walking two and striking out four. Mathews struck out five and walked none, but did allow a three-run seventh.
"Gino was up a little bit," Brewer said.
"He wasn't particularly great with his command early on, but he still competed which is what he's done for us all year. Pleased with the effort. And Sam is Sam. I know he had a rough inning there, but he really dominated his first inning which was the biggest inning. That was the shutdown inning for us that we needed."
The Pioneers will play host to Mount Union at 1 p.m. today in a doubleheader with the tournament title on the line. If either team sweeps today's twinbill, they'll be the tourney champs.
If there is a split, then a decisive game three will be played at 1 p.m. Saturday. The Pioneers went 4-0 against the Purple Raiders in the regular season, outscoring them 33-9.
"They're the second seed for a reason," Brewer said of Mount. "They had a great regular season. We were fortunate to win four ballgames off of them last week, and it's not easy to beat anybody five or six times, whatever it's going to take. Really good test. Really good arms. They're very aggressive offensively. It's the way it should be -- 1 and 2 seed meeting for the championship."
Marietta used some two-out lightning to plate the game's first run in the bottom of the second. With two down, the Pioneers got three straight singles from Trent Castle, Drew Wilkinson and Weiss. Weiss' base knock to center plated Castle from second to make it 1-0.
In the bottom of the third, Damian Yenzi and Holderbach started with back-to-back singles. Later, with two outs, Merrill walked Brady Cottom to load the bases and then plunked Castle to bring in Holderbach and make it 2-0.
Then in the fourth, the Pioneers put runners at second and third with one out to set up Holderbach. The MC first baseman delivered a two-run single to center to make it 4-0.
Another RBI single from Weiss in the fifth plated Castle and made it 5-0.
In the sixth, Holderbach punched a one-out triple into the right field corner. He scored on pinch-hitter Nick Bonnizzio's single to right. Bonnizzio smacked the first he saw past a drawn in John Carroll infield to stretch the Pioneer lead to 6-0.
John Carroll threatened throughout, putting the first two batters of the game on base before Sabatine worked out of it.
Sam Heaton led off the third with a line drive to deep right, but Hill made a nice over-the-shoulder catch to record the out. Next batter Joe Olsavsky doubled to center, but was stranded at third by Sabatine.
The Blue Streaks left runners on base in the fourth and fifth before finally putting up a crooked number in the seventh. With Mathews now on the bump for Marietta, Heaton and Olsavsky hit back-to-back one-out singles before scoring on Henry Haracz's triple to the right field wall. Haracz then scored on Justin Hanley's groundout to short to make it 6-3.
Marietta got one of those back in the bottom of the seventh on Holderbach's bases loaded sac fly to right, which brought in Matthew Busby to put MC up 7-3. Holderbach now has 51 RBIs this season.
MC took advantage of some John Carroll sloppiness in the bottom of the eighth to add three more runs. The Pioneers loaded the bases with no outs on three walks, with Valentine scoring on a wild pitch. Busby then grounded to second, but the the ball was misplayed allowing Cottom and Castle to score and make it 10-3.
The Blue Streaks' season ends with an 18-21-1 record. Olsavsky went 4 for 5 at the plate while Heaton was 3 for 5.