Stop if you have heard this before regarding John Carroll baseball. Dig early hole. Climb out of hole slowly. Use dramatic moment to escape with a win.

The scenario played out yet again for the Blue Streaks, as six runs over the final three innings in the second game of a doubleheader Saturday in Berea enabled the visitors to escape with a split. Baldwin-Wallace won game one by a 7-2 score, and led 5-0 in game two before John Carroll rallied for a 9-8 win.

Box Scores:  Game One  /  Game Two

The first game was one of the instances where the Blue Streaks fell behind early, and then couldn't climb their way back. The Yellow Jackets got two runs in the home half of the first inning, and tacked on four more in the third. A single run in the fifth put B-W up 7-0, before JCU scored their only two runs of the ballgame on a two-run homer by senior Bryan Robinett (Loveland, OH, Cincinnati Moeller).

A five-run first inning in game two helped the pesky Yellow Jackets stake a 7-1 lead after four innings, but the Blue Streaks scored in each of the last five innings to escape with the victory.

John Carroll started to manufacture runs in the fifth when junior catcher Matt Lindenberger (Erie, PA, Cathedral ) got hit by a pitch, and then moved up 90 feet on a single by classmate John Hastings (Pittsburgh, PA, Fox Chapel). Both advanced one base on a passed ball, and Lindenberger eventually came around to score on a groundout by Tim O'Brien (Chicago, IL, Loyola Academy).

The Blue Streaks then turned to the long ball to chip away at the deficit, adding a solo shot from Robinett in the sixth and a two-out, two-run shot from O'Brien to make the score 7-5 heading into the bottom of the seventh. B-W wasn't just going to roll over, and tacked on a run in the eighth to stretch their lead to three.

It was the long ball that helped JCU again in the eighth as, after a Ryan Pacyga (Forest Park, IL, Nazareth Academy) single, Robinett hit his second homer of the game to make it a one-run game. A two-out single by Hastings plated Dominic Varacallo (DuBois, PA, DuBois Central Catholic) and tied the contest heading to the home half of the eighth.

That was when junior pitcher Michael Eden (Aurora, OH, Aurora) entered the game for JCU and quickly retired the Yellow Jackets in order.

A strikeout started the Blue Streak ninth, but O'Brien gave his team the lead with one swing of the bat, a solo shot that put JCU ahead 9-8.

Eden came back out in the bottom of the ninth and again set down three straight to earn his third victory of the season. Four of his six outs came via the strikeout.

With the win, JCU improved to 14-8 overall and 2-2 in Ohio Athletic Conference play. Next up for the Blue Streaks is a Wednesday afternoon doubleheader with Muskingum College that will get underway at 1:00 at Schweickert Field.