DC Baseball Sweeps Owens

Perrysburg, Ohio – The Delta Baseball team took a huge step in securing the No. 1 seed in the Region XII tournament on Wednesday as they swept Owens Community College in a double-header by the scores of 6-4 and 15-5.  The wins put the Pioneers in first place in the Region XII standings, needing only to split a double header with Lorain Community College on April 29^th to secure the overall No. 1 seed. 

Game one saw Delta ace Drew Schultz take the hill and shut down the Express bats to keep the score 0-0 heading in to the third inning.  That's where Delta broke through for four runs as Cam Fowler led off the inning with a solo shot to right field, his first career homerun.  Two walks later, Carson Longstreth tripled to right-center to score Matt Fisher and Nick Johnson to make it 3-0 in favor of the JOEs.  Jackson Lund would then single Longstreth home to make it 4-0 after all was done.

Owens collected single runs in the third and fourth innings to cut the DC lead in half and when a two-run homerun left the yard in the bottom of the fifth inning, the game was tied at 4-4.  Neither team threatened to score until the bottom of the seventh when Owens drew a two-out walk and had runners at second and third after an opposite field double.  But Schultz fielded a comebacker to end the inning and push the game into extra frames.

Cam Floyd led off the eighth with a walk and was quickly bunted to second base by Lucas Sella.  Andrew Gauthier then singled Floyd home to break the tie and give Delta the 5-4 lead.  Fowler then tripled to centerfield to score Gauthier to make it 6-4 Delta.  Joe Tany relieved Schultz on the hill in the bottom of the eighth and retired the side in order to collect his second save of the season and give Delta the victory.

Cam Fowler (homerun, triple, 2 RBI) and Andrew Gauthier (single, double, RBI, run) led the offense while Schultz upped his record on the mound to 5-1.  He threw seven innings, striking out nine and giving up four earned runs. 

In game two, Delta jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning before Owens tied it up with two of their own in the bottom of the frame.  Three walks and two hits in the top of the second plated four runs for Delta with the big blow being a Caron Longstreth double that scored two.  Both teams scored in the third to make it 7-4 in favor of Delta.  Starting pitcher Joe Tany would throw a shutout over the next three innings while the Pioneers continued to score making it 11-4 heading in to the seventh inning.

From there, Delta would plate four more runs and Owens would score a single run in the bottom of the inning for the 15-5 final.  Tany went the distance, striking out 13 batters to improve his record to 2-3 on the year.  Cam Floyd (single, double, 2 RBI, 2 runs), Carson Longstreth (single, double, 3 RBI) and Drew Long (3 walks, hit by pitch, single) led the offense.

Delta is now 19-18-1 on the year and will travel to Mott tomorrow to finish off a four-game series with the Bears.  It will be their fifth and sixth straight games in three days with four more to follow on Friday and Saturday as they take on #12 (DII) Lansing in a four game series to finish off their week.