The Little Giants came into the weekend having only defeated the Tigers once in nine outings since joining the North Coast Athletic Conference. Wabash is tied for first with Ohio Wesleyan in the NCAC Western Division with a 3-1 conference mark. Ohio Wesleyan will travel to Mud Hollow Field for a four-game series April 5-6. The Little Giants are 13-8 overall.
Sides, after going 4-for-4 in Saturday’s second game, went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, including the game-winning RBI in Sunday’s victory. He finished the weekend 7-for-10 with seven RBIs and two doubles.
Wabash needed no come-from-behind heroics in Sunday’s victory. The Little Giants took a 2-0 lead in the second inning when Sides brought two runners home when the Tiger’s leftfielder misplayed a ball, scoring Mike Mack (Butler, IN/Eastside) and Danny Schubert (Lebanon, IL/Lebanon). Wittenberg cut the Wabash lead to one with a solo home run in the third before the Little Giants put the game away in the fifth inning.
Sides opened the fifth with a double to left, followed by an RBI single by catcher Jared Martin (Rosedale, IN/Riverton Parke) to put the Little Giants up 3-1. Martin moved up to second on a passed ball, then scored on an RBI single by freshman Phil Ramos (Zillah, WA/Zillah). The Little Giants loaded the bases with one out, then scored another run on the second passed ball of the inning. A sacrifice fly by freshman Jared Bogan (Struthers, OH/Struthers) brought home the fourth run of the inning.
Wittenberg added two runs in the bottom of the sixth, but senior pitcher Jake Martin (Rushville, IN/Rushville) finished the game, going the distance while striking out five and giving up three runs on seven hits to earn his third victory of the year.
Sides finished with two of Wabash’s six hits in the contest.
Wabash scored a run in the first inning of the final game of the series, only to see the Tigers respond with five in the bottom of the first to take the lead. Wabash trailed 8-2 going into the sixth and nearly rallied for the win, but fell two runs short. Schubert led the Little Giants at the plate in the fourth game with a 3-for-4 performance. Sides had two RBIs. Bogan had two doubles and scored two runs, going 2-for-3 at the plate.