The Otterbein Cardinal baseball team got their season off to a historic start, as their two victories on Saturday pushed their record to 13-1, the best start to a season in program history.
Game one of Saturday was a nine inning game against Lasell College, a team they beat twice earlier in the week in a doubleheader.
The Lasers were resilient in the early innings, but the Cardinals bats broke through in the fourth and fifth innings, putting up five runs and taking a 5-2 lead.
A team that has put together huge offensive innings so far this season to put their opponents away, the Cardinals plated seven runs in the top of the eighth inning to take a 12-2 lead. The Cardinals would hold on for a 12-3 victory and pushed their win streak to 11 games.
Taylor Ellis got the start and win for the Cardinals as the sophomore is now 2-0 on the season. Over seven innings Ellis gave up six hits, no earned runs and struck out four batters while walking none.
Otterbein was paced at the plate by sophomore Billy Harkenrider who went 4-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored.
Senior Wes Meadows hit his career double number 42 in this game, which puts him past Bobby Wright for the most career doubles at Otterbein. Meadows is also approaching the top five in career RBI.
In the second game of the day the Cardinals would do battle with Knox College. Meadows would take to the mound and look to build on his 2-0 record.
The Prairie Fire scored three runs in the top of the third and looked to have all the momentum. But it wouldn’t affect the Otterbein offense that scored four runs in the bottom of the third, two of them coming off a homerun by Sean Kettering, his third of the spring break trip.
The Cardinals scored four more in the fifth and five more in the eighth to cruise to a 13-3 victory.
Meadows helped his pitching performance out by going 2-for-3 at the plate with four RBI and scoring two runs. He also hit a three-run homerun in the eighth inning.
To go along with his homerun, Kettering hit 5-for-5 on the day with two doubles, four RBI and three runs scored.
The Cardinals wrap up their spring break trip tomorrow with one more game against Knox College before returning to Westerville.
