Marietta handles John Carroll for 2nd straight sweep

Marietta College’s Ben Kaplin, right, shakes hands with head coach Brian Brewer after hitting a home run in a game against John Carroll Saturday at Pioneer Park.
(Photo by Aaron Lee)

On Saturday, Marietta College baseball hosted Community Day, a double header against John Carroll with free entry, food and plenty of festivities. The Pioneers honored the occasion by beating the Blue Streaks 3-0 in the first game and 13-5 in the second.

Marietta got out in front early thanks to singles that batted a run in by both Jeremy Tonelli and Diego DeCello in the first inning.

Once the bats got cold, quality pitching kept Marietta ahead. Starting pitcher Jacob Rocky was dominant through six innings. He gave up no walks while striking out 12 batters. Facing a bases loaded jam in the top of the third, Rocky managed to strike out three straight batters in a row to retire the side.

Gabe Torres came on in relief for the last three innings and kept the shutout rolling while striking out three batters.

In the first game, the score stood at 2-0 until the bottom of the eighth, when a double by Austin Amburgey brought home Tonelli to bring the final score to 3-0.

Marietta College’s Forrest Havanis delivers a pitch during a game against John Carroll Saturday at Pioneer Park.
(Photo by Aaron Lee)

The Pios once again got out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the second game, this time with the runs coming by way of a Ben Kaplin single that brought home two baserunners. Kaplin scored on his next at bat as well, blasting a solo home run to give Marietta a 3-0 lead. A single by Nick Bonnizzio in the fourth inning batted a run in and brought the score to 4-0.

John Carroll scored its first runs of the day 14 innings into the doubleheader. A groundout by Erik Daugenti brought a runner home, and Michael Persichetti scored on a balk to make the score 4-2 going into the bottom of the fifth.

Marietta responded with a big fifth frame.

The scoring started with a single by Kaplin. With the bases loaded, Jack Neal drew a walk to bring a runner home. Cole Yeager scored the Pioneers’ final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly ball that brought home Tonelli. With four innings remaining, Marietta led 7-2.

The score stood at 7-3 after a single by Persichetti. In the bottom of the sixth, Alex Richter, Amburgey and Tonelli all scored unearned runs due to Blue Streak errors to give Marietta a 10-3 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Pioneers yet again drew a walk with the bases loaded to score the runner on third, this time coming by way of Kaplin. After an RBI single by Tonelli, Amburgey did the same as Kaplin, but with a hit by pitch instead of a walk to bring a runner home. This flurry of runs brought the score to 13-3.

John Carroll managed to score two in the ninth, but it was not enough.

Marietta won the second game of the doubleheader, 13-5.

Pioneers head coach Brian Brewer gave his thoughts after both games, “Game one, I thought we played really well. We could’ve scored a few more runs and played a little better offensively, but we were clean defensively. I thought Jacob (Rocky) was exceptional on the mound as a starting pitcher, and Gabe did a really nice job out of the pen. Good, clean win in game one, and then in game two we swung it a little better. It was really a bullpen day for us, so we were hoping to get three or four (innings) out of some guys, and we did. We continued to play great defensively. Great day, great atmosphere, two wins, always a good thing.”

Brewer was thankful for all the effort that went into hosting Community Day, “It’s a special day for us.

“We circle it on the schedule every year. Rick Smith and his sports management class do a great job organizing it, the community does a good job supporting it with sponsorships and those kinds of things and obviously the crowd comes out every year.

“It’s been happening for a while now, and every year it’s a special day full of special people, and we certainly appreciate everyone’s efforts.”

The doubleheader with John Carroll was Marietta’s last set of home games scheduled for the rest of the season, but the Pioneers look to reschedule one of their missed games at home to have a senior night. The Etta Express plays next on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Washington and Jefferson College, and heads to Granville on Thursday to take on No. 2 Denison at 6 p.m.

Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com