Wabash came into Thursday’s games with Widener College batting .380 as a team and outscoring the opposition 27-11 with a perfect 5-0 record. All that changed as the Little Giants were shutout for the first time this season, losing to Widener 1-0 in game one and 2-0 in game two.
Widener scored only one earned run in the two games. Senior Jon Horne (Cincinnati, OH/St. Xavier) held Widener to one unearned run on five hits while striking out ten. But Wabash would manage only six hits and would strand six runners on base, unable to come up with a timely hit to score the tying or winning runs.
Freshman Jon Elwardt (Naperville, IL/Naperville Central) picked up two of the six hits in three at bats.
Game two saw the return to the mound of Taylor Backs (Bedford, IN/Bedford North Lawrence), who missed all but two starts last season with an arm injury. He came back to fire a complete game, allowing one earned and one unearned run on four hits, four walks, and three strikeouts. But again the Little Giants would not put together a string of hits. Wabash outhit Widener five to four, but left nine runners on base and grounded into three double plays.
Billy King (Peoria, AZ/Peoria HS—Glendale Comm. College) was 2-for-4 after seeing his five-game hitting streak snapped in the first contest. Phil Ramos (Zillah, WA/Zillah) kept his seven-game hitting streak alive with a base hit in the third inning following a David Culp (DeKalb, IL/DeKalb) double.
Wabash (5-2) will play Husson College from Maine Friday at 10:30 a.m. before wrapping up its Florida trip Saturday against Coe College.