Yellow jackets stepping up Fortunate finish, improved pitching put Baldwin Wallace on path to College World Series
Baldwin-Wallace head coach Brian Harrison hits fielding practice last year. The Yellow Jackets have returned to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, which they won last season.
(Thomas Ondrey / The Plain Dealer)
BEREA, Ohio - Baldwin Wallace's baseball team is back in the NCAA Tournament and Oberlin College is a tournament newcomer after winning a historic North Coast Athletic Conference title last week.
BW (31-10) is the No. 2 seed and Oberlin (18-26) is seeded eighth in the Mid-Atlantic regional Wednesday through Saturday at SUNY Cortland in Cortland, N.Y.
Baldwin Wallace, ranked fifth nationally, opens the double-elimination tournament against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of New York (26-15). The Yellow Jackets were eliminated in the OAC Tournament semifinals last week and received an at-large tournament bid.
BW won the Mid-Atlantic regional last year and advanced to its first NCAA Division III World Series.
Oberlin opens against No. 1-ranked SUNY Cortland (36-3). Oberlin is coming off a surprising tournament run that culminated with its first male-sports NCAC championship since the formation of the league in 1984.
Oberlin defeated Allegeheny and upset seventh-ranked Wooster on Thursday in the double-elimination conference tournament, and faced Wooster again in the finals.
Wooster won the first game, 23-6, but Oberlin won the decisive second game, 11-5. Benjamin Whitener had four hits and four RBI in the second game. Tournament MVP Milo Sklar was the winner in relief, allowing three runs (two earned) in 3 2/3 innings. For the tournament, he was 1-0 with a save and struck out five in 7 2/3 innings.
Baldwin Wallace hires track coach: Matthew Cole has been named Baldwin Wallace's head track coach and cross country coordinator, replacing Bill Taraschke, who is retiring after 31 years. Cole comes to BW from Wisconsin-River Falls and is a former Mount Union track athlete. His father, Larry, is the coach at Rose-Hulman (Ind.) Institute of Technology.