HIRAM, Ohio – April 16, 2025 – Hiram continued to play its best baseball at home on Wednesday at Fishel Field, as two players broke program records and the entire offense combined for 35 runs on 36 hits in a 22-12 and 13-8 victory over Oberlin.
The two wins improve Hiram's record to 5-0 at home and 4-4 in conference games; only four teams in the NCAC standings (Wooster 8-0, Denison 7-1, Wabash 8-2 and Kenyon 5-3) have better records than the Terriers up to this point in the season. With four teams making the year-end NCAC Tournament, Hiram is now in contention for its second ever berth in the NCAC Tournament (2005).
Highlighting the day was
Evan Fairbanks, who broke the Hiram home run record with a pair of home runs in Game 1. The graduate student now has 20 career home runs, surpassing Dominic Yazkek (18) for the title of "Home Run King."
"I made it a personal goal of mine when I came back for another two years," Fairbanks said after the games. "Happy to have it, but the work's not done yet."
All three of Fairbanks' home runs this season have come at Fishel Field, with each long ball landing far beyond the left-field fence. His three-run homer in the third inning lifted Hiram to a 9-1 lead, while his solo homer in the sixth inning put the score at 21-12 in favor of the Terriers.
Hiram went on to win Game 1, 22-12, which marked the program's most runs scored in any conference game and its second-most all-time (trails a 42-run performance vs Lake Erie in 2002).
Hal Walker Jr.,
Logan Gallentine,
Tyler Fernandez and
Ethan Ryan also had strong starts to the afternoon, with each player tallying at least three hits and one RBI.
Walker Jr.'s three hits in Game 1 were particularly significant, as it now put him just three hits away from breaking the program's all-time hits record, which stood at 182 (Mike Davis) entering play on Wednesday.
The senior from Mentor, OH understood the assignment, as he tallied three hits in Game 2 to break the record and stand alone atop the all-time hits leaderboard. For the entire game, Walker Jr. reached base safely on five different occasions, four of which saw him score a run.
"It feels really good," Walker said of the accomplishment. "Just to come out and be the best that I can be and lead these guys to victory – it's one of the best things."
Walker Jr.'s production set the table for Fernandez, who rode the momentum from his 4-for-4 performance in Game 1 by posting an 8-RBI performance – which set a program record for most RBI in a single game – in Game 2. Fernandez lifted a three-run homer in the second inning to make it 6-2 before a two-run triple in the fourth (8-4) and two-run single in the fifth (12-5) helped extend the lead even further.
Beyond the offensive outburst, which carried the team to a 13-8 win,
Sam Boyle also had a clean day on the mound. The graduate student earned his second victory of the season thanks to six strong innings in a hitter-friendly environment; Boyle's eight strikeouts in the game marked a new career-high.
Cody Horvath capped off the doubleheader sweep with two dominant innings of relief to keep the perfect home record alive and enter his team into the playoff conversation.
Hiram will look to keep that conversation going on Saturday, when it travels to Springfield, OH for a doubleheader with Wittenberg beginning at 12 p.m. from Carleton Davidson Stadium.
