Box Score
First, the Blue Streaks had to wait out a two-and-a-half hour rain delay.
Then, they had to endure a six-run third inning that for all intents and purposes decided the opening game of the 2009 Ohio Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament, as host and top-seed Heidelberg rolled to a 13-3 win over John Carroll Thursday in Tiffin, Ohio.
Heidelberg got on the board first with a solo home run in the bottom of the first, but JCU responded in the top of the second. John Skomra doubled to open the frame, then came home on Christopher Cairo's one-out double .
With the score tied at 1-1, the nationally ranked Student Princes erupted for six runs on six hits -- four of which were doubles -- in the bottom of the third.
Down 7-1 after three innings, the Streaks looked like they were ready to scrap their way back in when they scored twice in the top of the fourth. It was again Skomra who started matters off on the right foot with a single. He would eventually score on a two-out single by John Hastings.
Two batters later, Michael Carbo would single home Hastings.
That would be it for the JCU offense, however, as the Blue Streaks managed just three hits and no runs over the final five innings. Heidelberg would score once in the fourth, once in the sixth and four times in the eighth to hand John Carroll its worst loss of the 2009 season.
JCU is now 24-11 and will wait to face the loser of Friday's game between Otterbein and Marietta in an elimination bracket contest scheduled for 3:30 pm.