A valiant comeback effort by the Wabash baseball team came up two runs short Saturday afternoon. The Little Giants lost 11-9 to Heidelberg College in the first of a three-game series against the Student Princes.
Wabash fell behind early when the Student Princes exploded for six runs in the third already leading 1-0. The Little Giants scored their first run in the bottom of the third when freshman shortstop Matt Dodaro lifted a ball over the left field fence for his first career home run, trimming the lead to 7-1.
The Student Princes added a run in each of the next three innings before freshman Travis Smith came in to shut the door. Smith retired seven straight batters, coming onto the mound in relief of Tom Norman. Norman worked three innings of relief with five hits and three runs after replacing starter John Thiry. Thiry pitched 2-2/3 innings, getting roughed up after a pop-up snow storm delayed the game for 15 minutes after the starting time had already been moved back to 2:45 from its original setting of 2 p.m.
While Smith was cooling the Heidelberg bats, the Little Giants awoke at the plate. Chris Sides opened the fifth inning with a double and moved to third on a Dodaro single to right. A walk to Phil Ramos had the bases loaded when David Culp drilled a two-run single to right to make it a 9-3 game. The Little Giants scored four in the sixth when Billy King opened the innning with a single past the shortstop. Jared Bogan ripped a single to right ahead of a Sides walk to load the bases with no outs. Shaun Rico responded with a hard-hit double to right field to score two runs. Dodaro scored Ramos on a sacrifice fly in the next at bat to cut the lead to 10-6. Scott Hamilton came into the game as a pinch hitter with two outs, bringing a run home with a hard hit ball off shortstop Matt Decker's glove to bring Rico home.
Sides started the scoring again in the eighth inning, slamming another double to right center. Rico added his third RBI of the game with a single to left to cut the lead to two runs. Another Dodaro single moved Rico to second. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch with Ramos batting before the senior outfielder brought Rico home on a sacrifice fly to make it 10-9. But Wabash would be retired in its next two at bats to end the eighth down a run.
The Student Princes would finally get to Smith after he held them scoreless for 2-1/3 innings. An RBI double by AJ Schlea scored Jeremy Wentworth in the ninth to give Heidelberg a two-run cushion. That would be all Jared Wolf needed to earn the save for Ben Thorpe, who worked five innings as the starter.
Dodaro was a perfect 3-for-3 from the plate with two RBIs and two runs scored. Sides was 2-for-4 with two doubles as the pair accounted for half of the Little Giants' 10 hits.
Wabash (8-8) will play Heidelberg in two nine-inning game Sunday afternoon beginning at noon.