Senior Shaun Rico (right) blasted two more home runs to give the Wabash baseball team a 3-1 series win at Ohio Wesleyan to open the North Coast Athletic Conference portion of the season. The Little Giants won Sunday's opener 9-6 before falling in the final game 11-5.
Rico crushed a two-run homer to cap a four-run fifth inning to put Wabash up 8-0 in Sunday's opener. Matt Dodaro staked the Little Giants to a 4-0 lead with a grand slam in the third. Wabash added two runs in the fifth when Tanner Coggins drilled a double to right-center field to score Dodaro and Bobby Ritz. (View photos from the Little Giants' series against OWU.)
Ohio Wesleyan answered with six runs in the fifth inning before an RBI single by Joe Johnson brought Rico home with an insurance run.
Joey Niezer earned his first victory of the season, pitching 4-1/3 innings while surrendering five earned runs on six hits. He struck out four and hit three batters but did not give up a walk. Keegan Leckrone finished the final 2-2/3 innings for his first save of the season. The sophomore held the Battling Bishops to one walk with one strikeout.
Wabash took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning of the final game against OWU on the final home run of the series by Rico. The Bishops scored twice in the bottom of the fourth, but Wabash responded with two more runs on a sacrifice fly by Jake Thomas and an RBI single by Dodaro. The Battling Bishops did just that --- battled for nine runs in their final two innings to escape with one victory in the four-game series.
Rico was 4-for-13 for the series with three home runs, eight RBIs and a slugging percentage of 1000.00 He only struck out two times and played a near-flawless game at first.
The series victory was the first by the Little Giants over OWU since joining the NCAC in 2000. Wabash takes the early lead in the NCAC West Division standings with a mark of 3-1 while improving to 10-7 overall. The final loss Sunday snapped a seven-game winning streak by Wabash.
The Little Giants travel to Illinois Wesleyan Wednesday afternoon for a 4:30 p.m. (CDT) contest.
Game three - Wabash 9, OWU 6 (Box score)
Game four - OWU 11, Wabash 5 (Box score)
Photo - (Middle left) Joey Niezer earned his first victory of the season to give the Little Giants a 3-1 series win over Ohio Wesleyan. Photo by Nancy Coggins.