On the same day Matt Dodaro became the all-time home run leader in Wabash baseball history and Jake Thomas nearly hit for the cycle, the Little Giant team took one more step toward earning a berth in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament. The Little Giants split Sunday's doubleheader at Denison to take three out four games in the series from the Big Red. Wabash lost game one 5-4 Sunday before rallying for an 8-2 victory in the series finale.
Wabash moved into sole possession of second place in the NCAC Western Division standings with an 8-4 record. Denison trails the Little Giants by a game in the wins column, but have just two games remaining on its conference schedule with a 7-7 league record.
Dodaro blasted his 22nd career homer in fourth inning of game two to take over the all-time lead in Little Giant history. The senior shortstop's three-run shot accounted for the final runs in the Wabash victory.
Thomas started the scoring with a two-run homer in the first, followed by a triple by John Holm and a single off the bat of David Seibel for a 3-0 lead. One inning later Thomas ripped a triple to right center that scored Chris Deig and John Pennington to put Wabash up 5-0. Thomas added a single in the fourth inning just ahead of the Dodaro home run, but grounded to short in his final at bat in an attempt to add the double to his three previous hits.
Those early runs were all the runs starter Andrew Swart would need. The freshman held Denison to two runs on six hits with a walk and three strikeouts. Swart improved to 3-1 with the win along with recording his second complete game of the season.
The Little Giants took a 1-0 lead in Sunday's first game on an RBI single by John Pennington before Denison took its first lead of the series with three runs in the bottom of the second. An RBI single by Brian Lares scored Holm to cut the Big Red's lead to one, but Denison answered again with run of its own in the bottom half of the inning.
Wabash tied the game with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings thanks to a Dodaro double that tied him with Chris Sides for the all-time Wabash record with 40. The sixth inning score came from a sacrifice bunt by Deig to plate pinch-runner Patrick McCarley.
Denison responded with the go-ahead run from a one-out single by Andrew Mahle to score David Holmes. The Little Giants were retired in order in the seventh by reliever Freddy Marino, who picked up his third win of the season.
Brian Van Duyn took the loss to move to 2-3 for the season. He pitched six innings, surrendering 10 hits and five earned runs with two walks.
Thomas collected five hits and four RBI to join Dodaro as the only Wabash players in school history to record more than 170 hits in a career. Thomas is in second place with 171, while Dodaro holds the all-time lead with 174.
Wabash (14-14, 8-4 NCAC West) can earn one of the two Western Division spots in the upcoming NCAC Tournament with a win next weekend against either Wittenberg or Earlham. The Little Giants travel to Springfield, Illinois Tuesday afternoon for a doubleheader against Robert Morris College - Springfield, then play two against North Central College Thursday evening at the US Steelyard in Gary, Indiana. Saturday Wabash plays a doubleheader at Wittenberg before returning to Mud Hollow Field for the regular season finale against Earlham.