Tiffin, Ohio – April 9, 2010 – A 3-1 win over Defiance College today at Peaceful Valley gave the Heidelberg University baseball team, and 11th-year head coach Matt Palm, its 20th win for the year. It is the 11th straight season that the Berg has reached the 20-win plateau. Heidelberg reached the milestone in 23 outings, which marks the fastest to 20-wins in the history of the program.
Overall the Berg boasts a record of 20-3 and will resume its Ohio Athletic Conference schedule tomorrow when it travels to Wilmington College for a 1:00 p.m. doubleheader. Defiance falls to 10-11 on the yea
Heidelberg reached the scoreboard once in the second, third and fourth innings to hold an early 3-0 advantage. In the second, Elvin Williams (Euclid, Ohio / Euclid) had a sacrifice fly to center field to score Steve Decker (Maumee, Ohio / Springfield).
In the third, Heidelberg went up by two with a sac fly to left field by Decker. Scoring from third was Willie Brechun (Canton, Ohio / Canton Central Catholic), who led the inning off with a double.
Rounding out the scoring for the Berg was Alex Monroe (Chagrin Falls, Ohio / Kenston) in the fourth. He led the inning off with a walk and rounded the basses to score on an Andrew Buelow (Marysville, Mich. / Marysville) double.
Defiance erased the Berg shutout with an unearned run in the top of the sixth.
Senior Everett Thomas (Nashua, N.H. / Harrison (Ind.)) got the start on the mound and went 8.2 innings. He gave up nine hits, while striking out three to improve to 3-0 on the year. Closer Andy Lowe (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Carroll) threw a third of an inning in relief and helped preserve the win. He entered with two on and two outs. Lowe forced a ground out to second base to end the game. The save was his seventh on the year.
At the plate the Heidelberg six different hitters tally a hit for the Berg. Brechun and Buelow each had doubles. Picking up singles was Lizcano, Lash, Gar Keen (Sparta, Ohio / Highland) and Decker. Lizcano’s hit extends his streaking streak to a team-leading 20 games, while Brechun follows with a streak of 14.