The baseball team played well over spring break, ending its annual trip to Tucson, AZ, with a 7–3 record. Two of the games took place at Veterans Memorial Stadium where both the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Chicago White Sox played their spring training games.

“Playing at the stadium made me feel like a major leaguer,” said first-year Darren Zaslau.

The Yeomen played 10 games in just five days. Oberlin started off the week by earning a split with the University of Wisconsin-Superior. The following day the Yeomen clinched two big wins, first shutting out the Valley City State University Vikings and then easily defeating the Middlebury College Panthers.

Junior Justin Kidd and first-year Kyle Dominy both pitched against Valley City State and combined to shut out the Vikings offense. Kidd earned the victory with six strong innings, while Dominy picked up the save by finishing the game with three no-hit innings. On the offensive side, the Yeomen had 10 hits in the game, with juniors Jeff Schweighoffer and Kyle Decker and sophomore Brian Hemmert recording two apiece.

Monday’s matchup with Hamline University ended with another split as the Yeomen lost the first game 5–10. However, Oberlin defeated Hamline with an 11–2 score later that afternoon.

The Yeomen recorded a similar result the next day against the Lewis & Clark College Pioneers. The team lost its first game of the day 7–6, but came back and won its second game 4–3. Schweighoffer was again a big part of the offense, as he went four-for-six with a triple on the day. Senior Mike McDonald and junior Andrew Hutson also added three hits apiece in the doubleheader.

The team spent long hours at the ballpark nearly every day over the break, and keeping its focus proved to be a great challenge.

“It’s very difficult to concentrate for the many hours straight that we are at the ballpark, but if we work on locking down mentally for every pitch, we will be in great shape to be more successful than we already are,” Zaslau said.

The Yeomen concluded their trip with two impressive, high-scoring victories, defeating Carleton College 11–8 and Williams College 19–11. Schweighoffer ended the trip as the team’s top hitter, hitting .676 over the break.

“Overall our team performed well on our trip,” Schweighoffer said. “It is hard playing 10 games in five days, and coming away with seven wins is definitely something we are happy about. This trip prepared us for conference play, and if our bats stay hot and our pitching is more consistent, we will be tough to beat.”

The Yeomen came up victorious against Hiram College earlier this week, and will face Kenyon College this weekend. They will return home April 18 when they play Allegheny College.