John Carroll traveled down to Westerville to play an Ohio Athletic Conference doubleheader against Otterbein. This game was supposed to be played before Easter break, but because of the unpredictable Ohio weather, the games finally were available to be played Tuesday afternoon.
Just as they did against Marietta, the Blue Streaks bounced back from a devastating game one loss (9-1) to win game two (9-6) and keep control of their own destiny as far as the OAC postseason is concerned.
Game One
The Blue Streaks scored first, but were held scoreless after that. Dom Mittiga singled to get the offense going in the right direction. This hit was Mittiga's 200th career base knock, making him one of four players to accomplish this milestone, joining teammate
Patrick Keohane who reached the milestone earlier in the year.
After an
Aaron Zawadzki single to set up first and second,
Joe Charpentier singled home Mittiga, giving the Blue Streaks a 1-0 lead.
After that, it was all Cardinals. The Cardinals answered back with three runs in the second, six in the fifth, and an extra insurance run in the seventh to bring the final score to 9-1.
Mittiga and
Derek Penman both went 2-4 in the game and
Erich Payne threw 3.1 IP in relief, only allowing one earned run on one hit.
Game Two
John Carroll answered back in the first inning of game two in a big way. The first five batters in the Blue Streak lineup reached base safely, culminating to a four-run first inning, setting the tone early on their bounce back game.
Otterbein started to crawl back in the third inning by scoring three runs, but John Carroll quickly answered by scoring one in the top of the fourth to make it a 5-3 ball game.
John Carroll tacked on runs in the sixth and seventh when
Matthew Springer scored on a sac fly, and Zawadzki homered in the seventh to make the score 7-3.
The Cardinals once again tried to crawl back in the eighth when they hit a two-run home run to make the score 7-5.
The Blue Streaks however showed their resilience in the ninth by getting those two runs back when
David Ferguson doubled home Zawadzki and
Justin Hanley singled home
Bennett Cavaretta.
John Merrill threw a masterful game in a must win situation. Merrill went six strong innings and allowed 3 runs. Nick Michel came into the game to finish it off in the ninth and got the job done to ensure a 9-6 win.
Patrick Keohane went 3-3 with a pair of runs scored and Zawadzki went 3-5 with three runs scored and two driven in.
The Blue Streaks move to 23-13 on the season with a 10-6 conference record.
The next conference game will be a doubleheader against Baldwin Wallace on Friday, May 3. These games will likely decide seeding for the conference tournament. If JCU wins just one of the two games, it will clinch a postseason berth. If the Blue Streaks do not win at least one game, they would need help from around the league.
