While the weather turned nearly perfect on Sunday afternoon, the Wabash baseball team's bats were perfectly silent. the Little Giants managed just nine hits in two games agains the Denison Big Red, losing 5-0 in the first game of the doubleheader before dropping a 4-0 decision in the second.
Shortstop Matt Dodaro had two of the three hits for Wabash in game one, including his team-leading seventh double of the year. Third baseman Travis Stirling collected the only other hit for the Little Giants on a two-out single in the fifth inning. Bobby Ritz was the only other base runner for Wabash in the contest, reaching on an error after Stirling's single to create the only scoring opportunity in the first six innings for the Little Giants. Dodaro's double came at the start of the seventh. He moved to third on a sacrifice by Jake Thomas, but was stranded there when the last two Wabash players struck out to end the game.
Joey Niezer took the loss after allowing five hits in four innings of work. He walked three, struck out three, and hit three batters. Tom Norman surrendered a run on one hit in one inning of relief. Ben Humphreys worked the sixth inning, retiring all three batters he faced.
Ritz and Shaun Rico each tallied two hits in the final game of the four-game weekend series agains the Big Red. Dodaro added a single, as did David Culp in his return to the lineup after suffering a leg injury two weeks ago.
TJ Siple threw a complete-game while giving up just five hits in six innings. He walked four in the game.
Wabash (5-13-1, 0-4 NCAC West) heads to Bloomington, Illinois Wednesday afternoon for a nine-inning contest against Illinois Wesleyan University before returning to NCAC action next weekend with a four-game series at Wittenberg University.