MASON, Ohio – Facing elimination from the G-MAC Tournament, senior Mitchell Bault (Maineville, Ohio) twirled a complete game effort against the conference's top offense as Ohio Dominican's baseball team earned an 8-1 win over Walsh at Prasco Park Wednesday evening.

The win came on the heels of an 8-4 loss to Tiffin in 10 innings in the tournament opener for the Panthers, in which ODU held leads of 3-0 and 4-3 before ultimately falling.

The Panthers (30-22) will next take on the loser of the Kentucky Wesleyan-Malone contest at 11 a.m. Thursday at Prasco Park.

Bault threw 149 pitches against a Walsh lineup that led the conference in batting average entering the tournament, with 91 of them crossing for strikes. He surrendered eight hits and struck out six in the outing.

The offense broke free with a four-run second inning, with freshman Thomas Staab (Bellville, Ohio) drawing a bases-loaded walk and senior Colin Kaucher (Toledo, Ohio) following with an RBI single to get the scoring going. A passed ball and throwing error allowed the Panthers to tack on two more runs in the frame.

Junior Joey Machuga (Canfield, Ohio) had an RBI double in the fourth and freshman Michael Lang (Cincinnati, Ohio) added an RBI single in the sixth to bump the lead to 6-1, and senior Genesis Hillard (Cincinnati, Ohio) capped the scoring with a two-run basehit in the eighth to account for the final margin.

Bault improved to 7-5 with the victory, his fourth complete game of the season, while lowering his ERA to 3.43. He's allowed just three earned runs and 17 hits over his last 30.0 innings of work, spanning four starts.

Kaucher paced the offense with a 3-for-3 effort, also walking twice. Lang had two hits as well.

In the opener against Tiffin, the Panthers had momentum early, scoring once in each of the first three innings, though ODU also stranded five runners on in those frames.

Machuga had a sac fly in the first inning and an RBI single in the third, and freshman Manny Vorhees (Wapakoneta, Ohio) chipped in with an RBI basehit in the second, to put the Panthers on top 3-0.

Tiffin came back with a three-run fourth inning to even the game, but Staab's RBI single in the sixth scored senior Noah Bland (Oberlin, Ohio) to put the Panthers back in the lead at 4-3.

The Dragons tied it with an unearned run in the eighth, though, and would plate four runs in the decisive 10th inning.

Hillard and Staab each had three hits to lead the ODU offense, while senior Garret Sendelbach (Tiffin, Ohio) yielded three runs in 6.0 innings on the mound.

Contact: Scott Miles
miless@ohiodominican.edu