Box Score RICHMOND, Ind. — There wasn't much to be excited about for the Earlham College baseball team early in Friday night's contest against Defiance College.

After two innings, the Quakers trailed by eight runs in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference affair on John Cate Field at McBride Stadium.

However, by the end of the evening, Earlham was a 12-9 winner over the Yellow Jackets.

"We had a lot of energy in the dugout and the momentum finally went our way," said winning pitcher Colton Miller (Auburn, IN, Dekalb). "Zach Lee (Lynn, IN, Randolph Southern) did his job on the mound and that helped us climb back in it."

"It was big for me to bounce back," added Miller, who was the losing pitcher earlier this week at Bluffton University. "Any time you have a bad outing, you want the ball and to get back on the mound. I'm really glad I got the chance to come back. It was big for us to come out and get the first game."

The Quakers are now 13-13 overall and 3-9 in the conference. The 13 wins matches last year's victory total and the Quakers have 13 regular season contests remaining in 2012.

Early Trouble

Defiance (8-18, 1-11) scored twice in the first inning and then added six more in the second to build an 8-0 advantage before the Quakers were able to get their offense started in the third.

Sam Ward (Bay Village, OH, Bay) had a sacrifice fly and Ted Williams (Harper Woods, MI, Grosse Pointe North) had a RBI groundout to make it 8-2.

The Yellow Jackets scored what turned out to be their last run of the contest in the fifth to take a 9-2 lead.

Back-to-back RBI singles by Ryan Hayes (New Lebanon, OH, Dixie) and Mark Dye (Munster, IN, Munster) in the Earlham half of the fifth frame made it 9-4.

In the sixth, Earlham scored four times to close the gap to 9-8. Chris Tillery (Carmel, IN, Carmel) started the onslaught with a run-scoring single. Williams was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded before Dye capped the rally with a two-run single.

Earlham completed its comeback in the seventh and took the lead for good.

Taylor Gibson (Cumberland, IN, Mt. Vernon) had a one-out single to set the table in the four-run inning. Gibson stole second and moved to third on a throwing error by the Defiance catcher.

Tillery walked and he eventually swiped second. One out later, Ward blasted a double to center that scored Gibson and Tillery to give the Quakers a 10-9 edge.

Williams added a RBI triple and he scored on a with pitch for the last run of the contest.

From that point, the focus for the Quakers switched to the mound. Miller (2-3), who got the final out of the seventh inning, tossed a scoreless eighth as he picked up the victory.

T. J. Plummer (Aurora, IN, South Dearborn) earned his third save of the year with a perfect ninth that he finished with a pair of strikeouts. Plummer is now one save away from the single-season Earlham record (since 1974) set by Jay Laurie in 1987.

Matt Brankle (Kokomo, IN, Taylor) started for the Quakers and Lee worked five innings to give the Quakers a chance to mount a comeback.

Dye and Gibson led the Quakers with three hits each, while Ward and Tillery ended with two hits apiece.

The Quakers finish the three-game HCAC series with Defiance on Saturday as the teams meet for a doubleheader. The first game at McBride gets underway at noon.  

Box Score