Game One Box l Game Two Box l Photo Gallery

Chandler, AZ – The Oberlin College baseball team earned its second split in as many days, winning game two in walk-off fashion, 4-3, to bounce back from a heart-breaking 5-3 setback in game one against Williams College on Sunday afternoon.

In the game two victory, the Yeomen were led by first-years Ben Whitener and Jeff Schweighoffer along with sophomore Steve DiNanno as they each came through in clutch situations.

Sophomore Mattie DeDoes got the start on the bump and battled his way through 6.2 innings. The Michigan, native provided a gutsy performance for the Yeomen, throwing 125 pitches. He struck out four and scattered 10 hits along the way. However, he left with the score tied and gave way to Mike McDonald who recorded the final out in the top of the seventh to earn his second win of the season.

DeDoes ran into some early trouble as Williams had five hits and two runs in after two innings of play, but from there he settled down nicely. The Ephs did scratch their way to another run in the top of the fourth before the Yeomen finally broke through.

A two-out ground-rule double in the home-half of the fourth from Schweighoffer got things going and then Whitener followed with a double down the left line to plate the Yeomen's first run of the game. DiNanno, who had two hits in the game, wouldn't leave Whitener stranded as he came through with a single to right field to cut the Ephs' lead down to 3-2.

In sixth inning, the Yeomen would even the score at three apiece thanks to DiNanno's second run-producing single of the game. However, in the top of the frame Oberlin caught a big break when Daren Hartwell roped a ball down the right field line that would have easily gone for a triple had it not went through an open gate in the outfield to make it just a ground-rule double. The next Williams player then hit a fly ball to left field that would have scored Hartwell on a sac fly, but it was all for naught.

The heroics in the seventh were started with a Zach Jaspers single. Rookie Mitch Novak later followed with an infield single and sophomore Kevin Verne worked a walk to load the bases. Schweighoffer then came up and saw three straight balls before being hit by the pitch to score the game-winning run.

In game one, junior Eric Knight was simply dominant on the mound, but fell victim to some bad luck. The hard-throwing right-hander, who threw a no-hitter exactly one week ago, was making a bid for yet another one as he got through 5.2 innings before the Ephs were finally able to find a hole.

Oberlin was clinging to a 3-1 lead in the sixth until things took a drastic turn for the worse. With two outs in the inning, Cameron Susk busted up-the no-hitter with a seeing-eye single through the right side. What followed was an Oberlin error, three more hits and a walk that allowed the Ephs to score four unearned runs in the inning.

Knight, who had a streak of 12.2 innings of no-hit ball come to an end in the disastrous inning, struck out nine batters in the game. He threw 104 pitches, 67 of which went for strikes.

Oberlin and Williams each surrendered an unearned run in the first and it remained that way until the fourth inning when rookie Mitch Novak came through with a two-out RBI single that went back up the box.

An inning later, Verne started the frame with a double down the left field line and later scored on Mike McDonald's single to right center to make it a 3-1 Yeomen advantage.

These same two teams will do it all over again tomorrow with another doubleheader. First pitch is set for 12 p.m. MST/3 p.m. EST.