COLUMBUS, Ohio – Despite a 9-7 victory in the first half of its doubleheader against Ashland, Ohio Dominican's baseball team couldn't carry the momentum into game two, falling 14-0 in GLIAC action Sunday under warm, sunny skies at Frank Damian Field.

Ashland, on the strength of Saturday's sweep, took the four-game series 3-1. ODU now stands at 10-15 (7-7 GLIAC), while the Eagles are 16-11 (7-7 GLIAC). They are joined by Lake Erie and Northwood in a four-way logjam in third-place.

After suffering a pair of shutouts on Saturday, ODU's bats came alive early in the first game of the doubleheader. Senior Germaine McAlpine (Canton, Ohio) singled and after a passed ball, a Felix Brown (Philipsburg, St. Maarten) single and an error, came in to score ODU's first run in the bottom of the first. Brown would then come in to score on an RBI baseknock by junior Austin Grate (Fort Wayne, Ind.) to make it 2-0.

The Panthers poured it on with two more runs in the second and one more in the third. Sophomore Nick DiNello (Boardman, Ohio) had an RBI single, McAlpine an RBI groundout and sophomore Zack Dascenzo (Uniontown, Pa.) a run-scoring single to push the Panther lead to 5-0.

Freshman starting pitcher Sean Blackburn (Wadsworth, Ohio), who set down nine in a row at one point, worked out of a jam by leaving the bases loaded in the fourth with a strikeout, and ODU stayed hot with a prolific fifth inning. With one out, Dascenzo smashed a high fly ball to left that carried over the wall in left for the first home run of the season for the Panthers. Then, after freshman Anthony Raschilla (Girard, Ohio) singled, DiNello drilled a liner that was just high enough to clear the fence in left for ODU's second home run in three hitters. The Panthers kept the rally going as Brown's RBI basehit brought in McAlpine, making it a 9-0 game through five.

Ashland, though, would not go quietly and sent 12 hitters to the plate in its half of the sixth, scoring seven times on six hits and taking advantage of two hit batsmen and a Panther error to cut the deficit to two. With two down and two still on, senior reliever Kyle Gore (Solon, Ohio) was able to end the Eagle rally with a groundout.

ODU put a runner on in the sixth but couldn't add any insurance runs, but the Panther closer didn't need any assistance as Gore worked a 1-2-3 seventh and slammed the door with a strikeout for his second save of the year.

The bottom half of the Panther lineup did most of the damage as Dascenzo, Raschilla and DiNello combined to go 8-for-11 with 2 HR, 5 R and 5 RBI. Both Dascenzo and Raschilla had three hits while DiNello drove in three. Brown also had two hits for the Panthers, while Blackburn picked up the win and improved to 3-1 after throwing 5.1 innings.

Four ODU errors helped Ashland take command of game two early, as the Eagles scored three times in the first and five unearned runs in the third to grab control. AU tacked on a single run in the fourth, three runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh, while the Panthers were held to just four hits in the second contest.

The Panthers, who closed their 11-game homestand with a 5-6 record, are on the road for eight straight, starting with a doubleheader at Lake Erie at 2 p.m. Wednesday.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu