BLUFFTON, Ohio - The Bluffton University baseball team ran into a buzzsaw on Thursday, April 12. Wittenberg entered the day hitting at a ridiculous .358 clip and they saw that average go up seven points as the Tigers rolled to a 27-7 victory in seven innings at Memorial Field.
The visitors scored 27 runs over the first five innings, including seven in the second, fourth and fifth frames. Austin Francis (Troy/Miami East) and Ezra Deitering (Ottawa/Miller City) launched homers to right center early in the game and Bluffton put up four tallies in the second, but Wittenberg had too much offense on a windy Wednesday with temperatures hovering near 80 degrees.
Jack Towell (Batavia/West Clermont) went 3-of-3 with an RBI and Grant Hovest (Ottawa/Ottawa-Glandorf) scored three times to lead the Bluffton offense. Senior Eddie Hardaway (Englewood/Northmont) smacked his first collegiate hit with a base knock in the bottom of the seventh!
Junior Seth Altman (Hilliard/Hilliard Davidson) fell to 1-2 after surrendering six runs on four hits with three walks in just 1.1 innings on the hill. Nathan Young (Copley) worked a scoreless seventh to end the beating in mercy-rule fashion.
Bluffton will leave Wednesday in the rearview mirror with a Heartland Conference trip to Manchester University on tap for Saturday, April 15. The Beavers are slated for a 1 p.m. doubleheader with the Spartans before capping the three-game series at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
-BEAVERS-
