Baseball Gets First Win In Walk-Off Fashion

FORT MYERS, Fla. – A wild pitch capped a wild game in which the Elms College baseball team picked up a 6-5 come-from-behind win over Thiel (1-4) on Wednesday.

Elms (1-6) trailed 5-2 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning before chipping away at the deficit. With two outs and runners on first and second, Ben Ross blasted a double to right center that scored Jaeden Rasmus from second and Josh Keaton from first to pull the Blazers within one at 5-4.

After escaping a second-and-third with one out jam in the top of the eighth, Elms evened the score at 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth. Thomas Slane led off the inning with a single, then advanced to third on an error which also allowed Nathan Ayala to reach base. A Josh Pasini double scored Slane to tie the game and left runners on second and third with just one out. A would-be go-ahead sacrifice fly from Rasmus turned into an inning ending double-play when Josh Berthiaume was gunned down at the plate.

With the score tied 5-5, Rasmus came in to pitch the ninth for Elms. He worked around a lead-off walk with back-to-back ground balls and a strikeout. With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Brandon Bennett was hit by a pitch and eventually reached third after back-to-back singles from Ross and Alex Hoss. With Slane at the plate, a wild pitch brought Bennett home and gave Elms the walk-off win.

Starter Thomas Owens and reliever Kyle Powell each threw four innings and struck out three batters for Elms. Owens allowed three earned runs while Powell was tagged for two unearned runs before Rasmus faced four batters in the ninth and picked up the win.

The Blazer's 1-through-4 hitters each had multiple hits in the game. Slane went 2-for-3 with one RBI, Ayala went 2-for-4, and Ross and Hoss each went 2-for-5.

Elms wraps up the Gene Cusic Classic on Thursday with a double-header against Otterbein beginning at 9:00 a.m.