Stellar Pitching Propels the Tigers into Key Matchup in NCAC Tournament

CHILLICOTHE, OH - In the Tigers' first game of the 2025 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Tournament, they were set to take on the Wabash Little Giants at 4:30 p.m. after the opening game of the tournament went to extra innings. However, after getting through just one-half of an inning, play was suspended due to thunderstorms in the area and play did not resume until 8 p.m. A pitchers duel through the first seven innings, the Tiger bats woke up in a big way as Wittenberg picked up the win, 14-2.

The win sends the third-seeded Tigers into the next round of the winner's bracket, where they will take on nationally ranked Denison at 10 a.m. Friday, with the winner of that game moving on to Saturday's championship game. With the loss, the Little Giants will look to keep their season alive against Wooster in an elimination game schedule for a 1:30 p.m. first pitch.

Nate Floyd (Akron, OH / Copley) got the start on the mound, and he hurled a no-hitter through the first four innings. After giving up a couple of hits to start the fifth, Floyd gave way to Charlie Schafer (Beavercreek, OH / Beavercreek), with Wittenberg holding a slim 1-0 lead and facing a situation with runners on first and second. Schafer went on to earn the win with 4.2 innings of stellar relief work, his second-longest outing among a whopping 24 appearances the season. Schafer allowed one run on three hits and four walks and struck out six Wabash batters, while Floyd's line read 4.1 innings pitched with one earned run on two hits and three walks.

With Wittenberg's pitching staff only using two pitchers in its opening game of the tournament, they will have plenty of arms left to take on No. 1 seed Denison, which was pushed to 11 innings against fourth-seeded Wooster in its opening game on Thursday.

Wittenberg broke the scoreless tie in the fourth with a Luke Thomas (Tallmadge, OH / Tallmadge) solo home run, but the Little Giants answered with a run in the top of the fifth. The Tigers regained the lead in the seventh as a run scored on a Thomas fielder's choice. In the eighth inning and the game tied again, the Tiger bats caught fire. With the bases loaded, Quintin Applegate (Delaware, OH / Olentangy Berlin) walked home a run to give Wittenberg a 3-2 lead. Thatcher Dietz (Westerville, OH / Westerville South) followed that with an RBI single up the middle and after Thomas was plunked with the bases loaded to score a run, Tommy Chilicki (Lewis Center, OH / Olentangy) drove in a pair on a single to left field to give the Tigers a 7-2 lead heading into the ninth.

Wittenberg was nowhere near done scoring, as a ninth-inning deluge started with a James MacAuley (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI / Grosse Pointe North) sacrifice fly as the Tiger plated seven more runs in the inning. Two scored on a double in the left center gap from Alex Nemunaitis (Perrysburg, OH / Ottawa Hills) and Chilicki reached on an error to score Nemunaitis. With two runners on, Rocco Royer (Lake Bluff, IL / Lake Forest) launched a three-run, no-doubt home run to essentially put the game on ice and give the Tigers a 14-2 lead, whcih would end up being the final score.

Team Leaders

• Nemunaitis and Royer each had three hits on the night to lead the team, and Royer and Thomas tied for the lead in RBI with three.
• Nemunaitis, Applegate, Royer and Xander Rodriguez (Salinas, PR / Franklin County) each scored two runs.
• Applegate and Parker Gryskevich (Brownsburg, IN / Brownsburg) each recorded two walks with good at-bats.

Team Comparison

• Wittenberg led in hits, 16-5, and didn't commit an error, in comparison to one miscue for Wabash.
• The Tigers led in every statistical category aside from walks, where the teams tied, and Wittenberg struck out two more times.

Written By: Grant Martin