April 30th, 2004: Baseball Review
The Wittenberg baseball team may have come up a little short over the weekend, but that doesn't mean all was lost. For the second straight weekend, the Tigers were defeated three out of four games by a veteran North Coast Athletic Conference West Division rival. But also for the second straight weekend, Wittenberg ended things on a positive note with a seventh-inning rally in the fourth game to earn a win.
The Wittenberg baseball team may have come up a little short over the weekend, but that doesn't mean all was lost. For the second straight weekend, the Tigers were defeated three out of four games by a veteran North Coast Athletic Conference West Division rival. But also for the second straight weekend, Wittenberg ended things on a positive note with a seventh-inning rally in the fourth game to earn a win.
For a young team with just one senior position player regularly in the starting lineup to pull off two come-from-behind victories against top-notch opponents bodes well for the future, and over the last week of the season the Tigers hope to build upon those experiences. First up is a road game at Ohio Northern on April 29, followed by a rescheduled doubleheader at Thomas More on May 2, a rescheduled doubleheader against Kenyon on May 3 and the season finale at the University of Dayton on Tuesday.
The Kenyon doubleheader will serve as senior day for five players making their final home appearance in the Red & White: catcher Matt Oberdorfer (Chagrin Falls, Ohio/Gates Mills Hawken), pitchers Tom Fox (Urbana, Ohio/Urbana) and Jason Flick (Hamilton, Ohio/Middletown Fenwick) and outfielders Kyle Wolf (Hamilton, Ohio/Middletown Fenwick) and Shawn Jarecki (Brookpark, Ohio/Valley Forge).
Last week, the Tigers had two games postponed due to rain before finally opening up beautiful new Carleton Davidson Stadium. Wittenberg played the first game in the municipally owned and operated stadium on Saturday, but unfortunately the Tigers dropped both ends of a doubleheader that day against Ohio Wesleyan, the defending NCAC champion, by scores of 7-3 and 10-4. Sunday's doubleheader was washed out by morning rains and moved to Monday, and the two teams wound up with a split as the Bishops won the opener to clinch a spot in the conference tournament by a 14-8 count and Wittenberg rallied for a 5-4 victory in the series finale.
The offensive star continues to be junior second baseman Jon Komperda (Bay Village, Ohio/Bay), who extended his hitting streak to 12 straight games, dating back to April 8 at Earlham. He is now among the NCAC leaders with a robust .429 in 28 games. He leads the team in batting average, hits (48), runs (29), total bases (58) and 11 stolen bases. He also is second on the team with 24 runs batted in despite occupying the lead-off spot throughout the season.
The only other Tiger player striking fear regularly in opposing pitchers in junior oufielder and clean-up hitter Matt Foster (Granville, Ohio/Granville), who is batting .340 on the season with team-highs of 29 runs, five home runs, 33 RBI, .546 slugging percentage, .504 on-base percentage and 27 bases on balls.
Until the last three weeks, the Tiger pitching staff carried the team, but in losing seven of the last nine games, the team's pitchers have struggled. The team earned run average has risen from 2.59, which ranked in the top 10 in the nation on April 12, to 4.72 following the Ohio Wesleyan series. Still, 12 different pitchers have made at least four appearances this season, and 10 of them are slated to return to the staff in 2005. Sophomores Steve Less (Sheffield, Ohio/Elyria Catholic) leads the team in wins with a 5-2 record, Flick and Fox top the team with 10 appearances each, junior Ryan Goldschmidt (Ft. Loramie, Ohio/Ft. Loramie) has the most innings pitched at 46 and freshman Trey Richardson (West Liberty, Ohio/Salem) paces the staff with a 1.74 ERA in six appearances, all in relief.
The Tigers' 9-7 NCAC West record represents a five-game improvement over the team's record in 2003.