By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Dayton, Ohio---The Owens Community College baseball team was no-hit by Sinclair Community College's Carlos Pena in the second game of today's doubleheader, but still managed a 1-0 win behind a masterful performance from freshman Kyle Bennett (Grove City/Grove City, Ohio).
In doing so, the Express picked up a split with Sinclair in the first of two conference doubleheaders this weekend.
Game 1: Sinclair 5 Owens 2
Alec Skender (Metamora/Metamora, Ill.) had two hits and scored the lone two runs for the Express in today's first game.
Sinclair scored first with an RBI single by Eric Hansman in the first off Express starter Tyler Huth (Northrop/Fort Wayne, Ind.). They added two more in the second before the Express struck in the fourth.
Skender had a one out single to get the fourth inning rally started before scoring one out and two batters later on an RBI single to center by Austin Legate (Strongsville/Strongsville, Ohio).
However, a throwing error by Legate from home to third and an RBI triple by Hansman upped Sinclair's lead to four in the bottom half.
In the sixth, Skender tripled to right field with one out before scoring one batter later on a Zach Kazmierski (Whitmer/Toledo, Ohio) sacrifice fly to center that pulled the Express within three.
Huth (1-2) took the loss on the mound. He went five innings while allowing 10 hits, five runs and four walks. He struck out nine. Nick Morrow (Fairfield/Fairfield, Ohio) pitched the sixth inning and allowed one hit in an otherwise clean inning.
Alex Samson (Orrville/Orrville, Ohio) and Payton Scott (Mississinewa/Gas City, Ind.) picked up the other two hits for the Express besides Skender (two hits) and Legate (one hit).
Huth now has 20 strikeouts in 14.2 innings pitched.
Game 2: Owens 1 Sinclair 0
The second game featured the rare win by a team who got no-hit as the Express pulled out a crucial early season conference win.
Bennett allowed only two hits and faced just four batters over the minimum while improving to 2-0 this year. He now has 19 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to open his college career, and today was his second complete game shutout of the season.
The Express got their only run of the game in the first inning. Tiger Jaso (Lakota/Kansas, Ohio) was hit by a pitch and Skender walked to put runners on first and second. Kazmierski attempted a sacrifice bunt, but all runners reached their bases safely via a fielding error. Taran Temple (Delta/Muncie, Ind.) then hit into a double play that scored Jaso.
Sinclair picked up their first hit in the second inning off Bennett, but he retired the next two batters. In the third, Sinclair had a runner reach on an error with one out, but Bennett once again retired the next two batters.
In the fifth, Jared Terrill (Shrine Catholic/Huntington Woods, Mich.), who was a courtesy runner for Marcus Rozsa (All Saints Secondary/Whitby, Ontario, Canada) was thrown out at third to end an Express threat. With Terrill on second and two outs, Skender grounded to the shortstop, who made an error allowing Skender to reach, but Terrill went too far around third on the play and was thrown out trying to get back.
In the sixth, Sinclair got a two-out single and a stolen base, but Bennett got a comebacker to the mound to end the inning. Then, Bennett pitched around a two-out error to strike out the final batter for the win in the seventh.
Bennett struck out seven and walked none over his seven innings, while Pena struck out five and walked four over his seven no hit innings. He took his first loss this year (5-1) in one of the toughest ways possible.
Ardian Selmani (Southview/Sylvania, Ohio) replaced an injured Jaso in the second inning, with Tyler Byerly (Washington Township/Crown Point, Ind.) moving from second to left on that substitution.
Notes
Owens and Sinclair were scheduled to conclude their four-game weekend series tomorrow, but the final two games were pushed back to Sunday beginning at 2 p.m.