A decade defeating Wabash
By: Jonathan Batuello
Issue date: 4/25/08 Section: Sports
Junior outfielder Justin Weiner set the tone for the game from the beginning. As the first batter for the No. 23 Tigers baseball team, Weiner sent a home run over the right-centerfield fence as the team swept Wabash College in a doubleheader Tuesday evening in Crawfordsville, Ind. The home run was just the beginning for the Tigers as the team took 11-3 and 6-2 victories and never trailed in either game.
"To start off a game like that it just gives you so much momentum," said sophomore Jon Newman. "That just gave us a ton of confidence and we kept working from there."
The Tigers' work in the first inning included scoring another run in the top of the first after Weiner's home run when Newman singled to bring in freshman infielder Ben Gardner later in the inning. Then in the third, the team added three more runs in the fourth and that would be all the room sophomore pitcher Brad Gerlach would need en route to his fifth win of the season.
"When you go out with a lead you know you have more room to make mistakes and you can have more confidence knowing your team showed up and the guys are fired up," Gerlach said.
In the second game, the Tigers started even quicker with four runs in the first with help of two Wabash errors. Then in the third the Tigers put up two more behind a senior infielder Adam Ford home run and senior infielder Eric Reese's RBI single that scored senior outfielder Kyle Thompson. Sophomore pitcher Derek Bryant earned his fourth win of the season behind four strikeouts in five innings of work.
The Tigers will now take this momentum into this weekend's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament in Danville, Ky., and the winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The team opens the double-elimination tournament this evening against Southwestern University at 4:30 p.m. In a double-elimination tournament the first game has added importance. If the Tigers lose, the team would have to win four consecutive games to win the tournament.
"The first game is the biggest because if we win that first game we gain so much confidence," Gerlach said. "After we win that first game we know that we are in the driver's seat."
The first game also has some added motivation, because last season Southwestern knocked DePauw out of the SCAC Tournament in the Cross-Divisional round, and DePauw is the only school from the SCAC East Division to make the SCAC Tournament
"There is something to prove to the other division of the conference that we are here too," Gerlach said. "We want to prove we aren't just a girls' basketball school or softball school and have a good football team. Just because they are more south doesn't mean we can't come out and compete with them. We are trying to show that our division can hang also."
"To start off a game like that it just gives you so much momentum," said sophomore Jon Newman. "That just gave us a ton of confidence and we kept working from there."
The Tigers' work in the first inning included scoring another run in the top of the first after Weiner's home run when Newman singled to bring in freshman infielder Ben Gardner later in the inning. Then in the third, the team added three more runs in the fourth and that would be all the room sophomore pitcher Brad Gerlach would need en route to his fifth win of the season.
"When you go out with a lead you know you have more room to make mistakes and you can have more confidence knowing your team showed up and the guys are fired up," Gerlach said.
In the second game, the Tigers started even quicker with four runs in the first with help of two Wabash errors. Then in the third the Tigers put up two more behind a senior infielder Adam Ford home run and senior infielder Eric Reese's RBI single that scored senior outfielder Kyle Thompson. Sophomore pitcher Derek Bryant earned his fourth win of the season behind four strikeouts in five innings of work.
The Tigers will now take this momentum into this weekend's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament in Danville, Ky., and the winner of the tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The team opens the double-elimination tournament this evening against Southwestern University at 4:30 p.m. In a double-elimination tournament the first game has added importance. If the Tigers lose, the team would have to win four consecutive games to win the tournament.
"The first game is the biggest because if we win that first game we gain so much confidence," Gerlach said. "After we win that first game we know that we are in the driver's seat."
The first game also has some added motivation, because last season Southwestern knocked DePauw out of the SCAC Tournament in the Cross-Divisional round, and DePauw is the only school from the SCAC East Division to make the SCAC Tournament
"There is something to prove to the other division of the conference that we are here too," Gerlach said. "We want to prove we aren't just a girls' basketball school or softball school and have a good football team. Just because they are more south doesn't mean we can't come out and compete with them. We are trying to show that our division can hang also."
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