Baseball Wins OAC Title Outright

For the third-straight season and the fourth time overall the Ohio Athletic Conference Regular Season baseball trophy has made a home on the campus of Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio. Heidelberg, under the guidance of 10th-year head coach Matt Palm, swept host John Carroll University, 5-3 and 14-9, to win the title outright, joining its outright titles from 2003 and 2008. The Berg shared the regular season championship with Marietta College in 2007.  WHEI audio

 
Heidelberg is currently ranked eighth in the nation according to D3baseball.com and the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA). Today’s outing concludes Heidelberg’s regular season with an overall record of 33-7 and an OAC mark of 15-3. The 33 wins ranks second all-time for wins in a single-season, standing behind the program’s 41 wins from a season ago.
 
The sweep also extends Palm’s head coaching victory total to 299. In 10 years at the helm of the Berg Palm owns a career mark of 299-136-2.
 
The championship has earned Heidelberg the right to host the 2009 OAC Tournament at Peaceful Valley May 7-9. Heidelberg will be the no. 1 seed and will be joined by John Carroll and Marietta, and a fourth team that will be determined following the conclusion of the regular season games on Sunday.
 
In game one, John Carroll held a 3-1 lead after four innings of play. The Berg cut its deficit to one with a Jeremy Wentworth (Johnstown, Ohio / St. Charles) sacrifice fly to center field in the fifth. Wentworth knocked in Ricky Lizcano (Toledo, Ohio / Roy C. Start) who led the inning off with a double.
 
Heidelberg went on to plate three runs in the sixth for the 5-3 eventual win. Gar Keen (Sparta, Ohio / Highland) reached on an error to start the inning and went on to tie the game following a Jason Lash (Strongsville, Ohio / Strongsville) single to right field. With two outs, Lizcano stepped to the plate and connected for an RBI single through the left side to score Lash for the game-winning run. Heidelberg added an insurance run with an RBI single by L.B. Emrhein (Seven Hills, Ohio / Padua Franciscan).
 
Senior left-hander David Paddock (Westerville, Ohio / North) got the start on the mound and went 5.0 innings. He gave up eight hits and three runs, two earned, to improve to 8-2 on the year. Along the way he struck out six batters. Sophomore right-handed closer Andy Lowe (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Carroll) threw the final two innings and picked up his ninth save on the year. Lowe allowed two hits and struck out two. His nine saves inks his name for the second-straight season atop the single-season record book. He tied his mark of nine from a season ago, along with Ben Thorpe’s nine from the 2003 season.
 
At the plate, John Carroll held a slim 10-9 advantage in hits. For the Berg, Willie Brechun (Canton, Ohio / Canton Central Catholic) went 2-for-2 to lead the Berg. Going 2-for-3 was Lizcano and Emrhein. Wentworth led the way with two runs batted in.
 
In game two, Heidelberg wasted little time picking up where they left off in game one. The Berg registered 11 hits in the first four innings and built an early 9-1 lead.
 
Wentworth had an RBI single down the left field line to score Lizcano to extend Heidelberg’s lead to 10-1 after five innings of play.
 
John Carroll did not go away and plated six runs off of four hits in the sixth inning to put some life back into the ballgame and trailed 10-7.
 
In the seventh, with runners on the corners, and two outs, Matt Grassley (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Point North) scored Lizcano from third on a sacrifice fly to center field. Keen followed Grassley with an RBI single to right field to put the Berg on top 12-7.
 
The Berg continued its scoring in the eighth with a Steve Decker (Maumee, Ohio / Springfield) sacrifice bunt to plate Lash. But the Blue Streaks answered with two more runs in the bottom half of the inning to pull within four, 13-9. The scoring came to a close in the top of the ninth, as Grassley knocked in Wentworth with a sacrifice fly to center field.
 
Freshman Sylvester Nino (Willard, Ohio / Willard) got the start and went 5.0 innings and picked up the win to improve to 3-1 on the year. He scattered nine hits, while striking out five. Nino allowed just one earned run.
 
Heidelberg and John Carroll combined for 27 hits, with the Berg holding a 19-18 advantage. Six players registered multiple hits for the Berg led by a 5-for-6 outing by Wentworth. Lizcano was a perfect 4-for-4 and Biagio Boytim (Brunswick, Ohio / Brunswick), Emrhein and Jack Bault (Randolph, Ohio / Waterloo) each finished with two hits. Wentworth and Keen had three RBI apiece followed by Lizcano with two.
 (Audio)