COLUMBUS - Following a 2-0 Sunday for the Ohio Dominican Panthers baseball team, the Panthers and Lake Erie Storm finished their conference series on Monday (March 27) at Frank Damian Field in Panther Valley. 

Lake Erie salvaged a series split with wins of 2-1 and 10-5 on a cloudy day that started with some rain and wet grounds. Ohio Dominican now sits at 11-12 overall and 4-4 in the Great Midwest standings. 

GAME ONE

Ohio Dominican threatened in the first two innings before finally cracking the run column in the third. After putting two runners in scoring position in the opening inning, the Panthers loaded the bases one inning but the game remained scoreless. 

In the third inning, Alex Brill (Amherst, Ohio) walked and stole second with one out. A wild pitch advanced Brill to third base prior to Lane Marshall (Wooster, Ohio) driving home Brill with a RBI single.

The game stayed 1-0 until the seventh inning. Lake Erie took the 2-1 lead with a two-run double in the top of the seventh. 

With the game in reach, the Panthers put the winning run at second base but could not convert the opportunity. Lake Erie won 2-1 in the seven inning contest. 

Six different players had singles in the contest with Brill, Marshall and Brennen Hunt (Ashland, Ohio) reaching base twice. Brille stole three bases in the game with Jordan Daniels (Blacklick, Ohio) stealing the fourth for the Panthers. 

Marshall Flynn (Heath, Ohio) pitched into the sixth inning with 5.1 scoreless innings. He fanned nine batters while scattering four hits and one walk. Myles Martinez (Columbus, Ohio) tallied two thirds of an inning with one walk and hit allowed. Brill followed Marshall to the mound and got the final out of the seventh. 

GAME TWO

Lake Erie struck first in the second inning with a single run coming from a collision on the basepaths. 

One inning later, Ohio Dominican pushed back for the lead. Mitch Santino (Lancaster, Ohio) walked and Jack Mathey (Copley, Ohio) singled. David Silva (Tontogany, Ohio) followed with a walk with two outs. Batting with the bases loaded, Brill lined a two-run single up the middle to give ODU a 2-1 lead. 

Two innings later, Lake Erie regained the 3-2 lead coming off an error that brought in two runs.

In the bottom half of the fifth, Marshall struck to tie the game again at three. He lined a RBI single to left field, scoring Mathey from second base.  

The sixth inning saw the teams trade the lead. The Storm took the 4-3 lead in the top half before the Panthers bounced back with two runs in the bottom. Daniels and Mathey lined back-to-back doubles to right field as ODU took back the 5-3 advantage as the game headed into the later innings. 

Lake Erie scored a pair of runs in each of the final three innings, taking the series finale 10-5. 

Mathey delivered three hits and two runs scored while Marshall had two hits of his own. 

Max Whitesell (Dayton, Ohio) struck out a career-high nine batters in five innings with three runs allowed. 

The Panthers continue conference play at Ashland this weekend on Saturday (April 1) and Sunday (April 2). 

Contact: Tyler Stotsky
stotskyt@ohiodominican.edu