On Saturday the Yeomen rode the pitching of sophomore Troy DeWitt to their first conference victory in two years.

DeWitt was masterful in a 2-0 victory over the Allegheny Gators to open a three-game weekend set. The Gators had been ranked 28th in the nation among Division III teams by the American Baseball Coaches Association, but DeWitt shut them out on two hits over seven innings. He struck out four and did not issue a walk en route to his third win of the season.
“[First-year catcher] Kyle [Neumeier] called a great game,” DeWitt said, downplaying his performance. “Our defense was great, too. It makes pitching a lot easier. It was a team effort.”
DeWitt’s role in Oberlin’s win earned him pitcher of the week honors from the NCAC.
“I never even knew they had anything like that,” DeWitt said. “[Senior] Bob Montag told me about it.”
The Yeomen scored the only runs DeWitt would need in the fifth, as first-year Steve Willever scored on an Allegheny error after he had singled up the middle and advanced to third on senior Bob Montag’s double. Sophomore Zach Pretzer added the insurance by singling home Montag.
The win, which ended the Yeomen’s seven-game losing streak, was Oberlin’s first NCAC East victory since defeating Kenyon 6-5 at home on May 6, 2000. The Yeomen’s seventh win of the year, it matched Oberlin’s 2000 mark, when the team was 7-27.

Allegheny rebounded to win game two 10-2 and game three on Sunday, 12-0, but the 1-2 weekend dropped them out of the ABCA poll, which ranks the top 30 Division III schools.
“We played a fantastic game against one of the elite teams in our region,” Head Coach Eric Lahetta said. “We did everything a good team is supposed to do in order to win.”

Oberlin followed up the weekend by taking a game into extra innings for the fourth time this year at Baldwin-Wallace College on Tuesday.
The Yeomen had been a perfect 3-0 in bonus frames this season, and it looked like they would improve to 4-0 when DeWitt singled home sophomore Ian Haynes in the top of the tenth.
But Baldwin-Wallace touched sophomore John Damron for two runs on two doubles in the bottom of the inning to take the game 8-7.

“That was a real tough one,” DeWitt said. “All close games are like that; you think you should’ve won.”
Oberlin had been trailing 4-2 going into the ninth, but rallied for four runs to take a 6-4 lead. Pretzer sparked the rally by drawing a one out walk, which was followed by a barrage of singles by sophomore B.J. Belville, first-year Andrew Caprariello, DeWitt and Damron, with walks to Neumeier and Willever contributing to the rally.

Baldwin-Wallace forced the extra frame, though, by plating two runs off of DeWitt in the bottom of the ninth. The tying run scored on an error by Damron at shortstop.
“We battled a very good Baldwin-Wallace team pitch by pitch for 10 innings. We are a good team that has to believe we are supposed to win those types of games,” Lahetta said.
DeWitt pitched three and one-third innings in relief of sophomore Rob Smith and first-year Ryan Drews. Drews started the game and went four innings. He allowed only one run on three hits and three walks, lowering his ERA to 4.40. Smith struggled and was replaced by DeWitt, who gave up just the one earned run on five hits while striking out six.
DeWitt now has 47 strikeouts in 47 and one-third innings, and his 3.80 ERA leads the team.
Pretzer led the offense by going three for four with an RBI, a run scored, and two stolen bases. Pretzer now has 19 stolen bases on the season and 55 in his career. He needs only four more to tie the Oberlin record. Pretzer also leads the team in batting (.366), slugging (.427), and on-base percentage (.413).
DeWitt, Caprariello, and Montag each had two of the Yeomen’s 13 hits on Tuesday.
The Yeomen are now 7-17 overall and 1-6 in conference play, placing them just percentage points behind the fourth-place Hiram Terriers, who are also 7-17, but 2-7 in the conference.
Oberlin will have its chance to move ahead of the Terriers this weekend, as they play a three game series at Hiram. The Yeomen also have a chance to pass Kenyon, 3-7 in the conference, to move into third place in the division. Oberlin will play a nine-inning make-up game with Kenyon this coming Tuesday.
“It’s just a matter of respect when you move up in the standings,” DeWitt said.