PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. - Adrian College and Marietta College renewed their regional rivalry more than 1,000 miles away from both of their campuses on Saturday (Mar. 5) with a doubleheader at the Snowbird Classic. The Etta Express entered the twinbill ranked eighth in the first d3baseball.com national poll and the teams split a pair with Marietta winning 3-1 in game one and Adrian winning 2-0 in game two.
The first game was scoreless until the bottom of the fifth when Marietta scored twice off Adrian ace Ryan Domschot. The bottom of the order got it started as Alex Toth drew a one-out walk and Evan Brockmeier singled to put two runners on base. Tim Saunders followed with an RBI single and a fielding error also allowed Brockmeier to score from first. The Etta Express added a run in the sixth as Britt Meador led off with a single and John Snyder followed with a single to put runners on with no outs. Casey Levens sacrificed both runners up a base and Braden Park hit an RBI groundout to second base plating Meador.
Adrian got their run in the ninth inning as Kyle Strawn singled to right to start things off. Cody Meyer then doubled to right center scoring Strawn. Mark Williams was lifted after a great outing and Kyle Lindquist came on to get the next two batters for the save. Adrian managed five hits as Williams struck out 10 with no walks in 8.1 innings. Domschot matched Williams with 10 strikeouts but did allow three walks, six hits and two earned runs in eight innings moving to 0-1. Saunders went 3-for-4 in the leadoff spot for Marietta with an RBI. Jake Cappelletty went 2-for-3 with a double for the Bulldogs.
The story of game two was senior hurler David Partyka who threw a complete game shutout against one of the better lineups in Division III. Partyka allowed five hits in nine innings and walked just one with three strikeouts. He is now 1-1 on the season with a 4.76 ERA.
Adrian scored in the bottom of the first in game two as leadoff man Meyer walked and was sacrificed over to second by Andrew DeLuca. Brian Bilius singled Meyer to third and Meyer advanced home on a wild pitch while Bilius moved to second. Bilius advanced to third on a groundout but was stranded there.
Partyka retired seven in a row between the last out of the first and the leadoff man in the fourth. Britt Meador singled to start the fourth but was thrown out at third later in the inning. Partyka also set down the Etta Express in order in the fifth and sixth innings. The Bulldogs scored again in the fifth as Meyer tripled with one out and DeLuca's RBI groundout scoring him to make it 2-0. Marietta put runners on first and second with two outs in the ninth but Partyka got a groundout to shortstop to end the game.
Austin Blaski took the loss going eight innings for Marietta. He allowed two earned runs, three walks and six hits while striking out seven hitters. Meyer scored both runs for Adrian and also drew a walk. Cappelletty went 2-for-4 in game two. The Bulldogs conclude their spring trip with a 4-3 record.
Notes: Cappelletty batted .400 (8-for-20) during the trip with two doubles and three RBI...Meyer hit .357 (10-for-28) with eight runs scored, two doubles, two triples and six RBI...Joe Dubina led the team with nine RBI during the trip and hit .333 (8-for-24)...AC batted .273 as a team...The team ERA was 3.90 as 11 different pitchers made an appearance...Josh Burd went 2-0 with a 2.84 ERA in 6.1 innings of relief.
