By: Colton Steiner
DELAWARE, Ohio - On a sunny day in Central Ohio, the Bluffton Beavers would hit the road to play Ohio Wesleyan on a perfect day for baseball. After the contest would go down to the wire, the Beavers would erupt for eight runs in the ninth to hand the Battling Bishops a 15-6 loss. With the victory, Bluffton improves to a record of 8-25-1 on the year while Ohio Wesleyan falls to 8-24 overall.
Ayden Spriggs (North Lewisburg/Triad) would get the party started in the top of the first, driving a single through the right side to bring home Jake Baumgartner (Toledo/Start) for a 1-0 lead. While the Battling Bishops were able even up the score in the bottom of the inning, Bluffton would take a 2-1 advantage after Colton Rinehart (Richmond, Ind./Centerville) poked an RBI single to center.
After a RBI single in the third from Jake McCoy (Milford), the Beavers would add two more on run-scoring doubles from Jack Towell (Batavia/West Clermont) and Justin Maurer (Springfield/Kenton Ridge). Trailing 5-1, the Battling Bishops rallied with five consecutive runs to overtake the Beavers 6-5 in the bottom of the sixth.
In the top of the seventh, the Beavers knotted the game up 6-6 folloiwng a sacrifice fly from Ayden Spriggs before taking the lead in the eighth when an Ohio Wesleyan error allowed Bluffton to go up 7-6. With the Battling Bishops being unable to score in the bottom of the eighth, Bluffton would start the ninth off by adding a run off a fielder's choice for an 8-6 lead. Then with two runners on, Jack Towell smacked a towering home run to left, putting the Beavers up 11-6. The excitement was just getting started when Justin Maurer followed with a solo dinger to left center. Bluffton continued the explosion of runs with back-to-back RBI singles, before scoring their final run off an Ohio Wesleyan fielding error, giving the visitors a comfortable 15-6 advantage which Bluffton made stand up as the final tally.
Leading the charge on offense was Jake McCoy who was a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate, bringing home three runs while also scoring twice. Also having a day was Ayden Spriggs, who tallied three hits to go along with three runs. Jack Towell led the team with four RBI to go along with a pair of hits and a pair of runs while hitting his first homer of the season. Connecting on two safeties apiece were Justin Maurer, Brandon North (Hilliard/Bradley) and Zane Sarcheck (Sunbury/Big Walnut) with the Beavers out-hitting the Battling Bishops 18-9.
Picking up the victory on the hill was Riley Reyna (Wellington) who improved to 3-3 on the season, after going 1.2 innings, striking out two and only allowing one hit in 1.2 innings of work. In total, nine Bluffton pitchers saw action in the contest, combining to allow only three earned runs off nine hits, while tallying five strikeouts as a unit.
Bluffton will be on the road again this weekend as the Beavers travel to play Hanover in a Heartland Conference doubleheader on Saturday, April 26, with the first pitch of game one being tossed at 1 p.m.
-BEAVERS-