OC working to improve sluggish sluggers

Small team falls hard to Allegheny College in Wendesday away game

Even if every member of the baseball team ate their Wheaties for a month straight, they would still have had a difficult time matching the brawn of the 23-member Allegheny College gators

The Yeomen dropped two games of a double header against Allegheny Wednesday leaving their record at a somewhat dismal 3-24.

Reduced team numbers forced the Yeomen to start subs, putting the team at a disadvantage from the start.

The first game's rout began with first-year Chris Irish striking out. Things didn't get much better with the next three batters yielding only a walk to first.

The game would have been off to a fairly competitive start if Oberlin had kept Allegheny from scoring, or even kept them to a few runs.

They didn't.

With Junior Carson Keeble pitching, Allegheny sparked the opening of the coup that was the inning. The first batter pounded a homerun to left center. Not to be out done, the second batter homered to center field.

The Yeomen walked the next batter and held the fourth batter to a mere triple. Allegheny got bored with that soon enough, though, and the next batter joined the not-so-exclusive homerun clique putting the score at 5-0. At 10-0, there were still no outs.

Allegheny racked in three more runs before Oberlin finally woke up and ended the fateful inning.

Oberlin, understandably distressed with the first inning's showing, went into the second with frustration. Not producing any runs, Allegheny stepped up hoping to match their first inning's prowess, but perhaps to their surprise, the Yeomen shut them down.

"When you're down 13-14 runs, it's hard to be up. But we're positive," Askins said.

The third inning went about the same, but first-year Chris Irish singled after two outs and then was left stranded.

Allegheny mocked Oberlin's hit by pounding in three more runs. Sophomore Jason Quinn was sent in to relieve Keeble.

The sixth inning ushered in a little life for Oberlin after the runless fourth and fifth innings. Irish singled to start a rally with first-year Andrew Smith chiming in with a base hit. Junior Dave Schummers tripled bringing home Irish and Smith and junior Mike Fradin brought in Schummers. Despite the hope, the game ended: a 17-3 rout for Allegheny.

The second game reassured the Yeomen of their competitiveness within the conference. Although the final score doesn't show it, Oberlin played a good second game, especially after their humiliating first showing.

Oberlin opened the game with one run scored from Schummers who was batted in by first-year LeRoy Anderson. Allegheny put in only two runs in the bottom of the first, leaving a one point score differential: the closest the two teams had been since the first hitter of the first game.

Allegheny produced a few runs per inning from patient play and Oberlin only produced another run in the seventh inning.

With one out, Oberlin rallied to put two men on base. Smith batted Askins in ending the game 13-2.

Askins said second game's score snuck up on them.

"They were stealing on wild pitches and errors and you look at the score and you're down seven runs," Askins said.

The few rallies in the games managed to excite Askins. "That's something that we haven't had. It's very rare to us and just shows that we have potential on this team," he said.

The team's spirits are weary, but most players are staying positive. "We play hard and practice hard and hit the ball well in batting practice, but then we don't come through," Askins said.