Written by: Zachary Worstell (zdw001@marietta.edu)
The Etta Express have failed to qualify for the OAC Tournament for the second season in a row. In their first season without Brian Brewer behind the helm, Marietta College finished 13-20 overall with an 9-7 conference record. Last season the Pios finished 18-20 with a 7-9 conference record.
The Pioneers finished 5th in the Ohio Athletic Conference standings behind Muskingum (9-7) and ahead of Otterbein (6-10). Marietta is behind Muskingum as the Muskies finished 19-19 overall this season.
In their final series of the season versus Wilmington College the Pioneers brought home…. In game one the Pios came out the gate early scoring two. They’d keep this lead as Austin Ziance pitched a complete game and the Pioneers won 4-3. For game two in Wilmington, the Express scored early again. This time with four runs off of three hits. Wilmington slowly chipped away at the lead scoring one run in the 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th innings. Fortunately, two hit by pitches put runners in scoring positions for the Express as Diego Decello drove in the game winning run for the Pioneers to finish their season with a 5-4 win.
Their final stand at Don and Sue Schaly Field was on April 26th for Community Day against Capital University. Their final home game was meant to be versus Bethany College for their Morgan’s Message game; however it was cancelled.
Ziance struck out nine in eight innings helping the Express to an 8-0 win over Capital. Michael Ciavolella led the Pios with a 1st inning home run and later would score twice more.
In game two the Comets and Pios traded leads as Marietta went through six pitchers in total. Ciavolella hit an RBI to tie the game 2-2 in the bottom of the 9th. The game went into the 11th as Luke Czarmonski cleared the sides in the top. In the bottom, Capital elected to intentionally walk Ciavolella after a Pioneer double. After a sac bunt to advance them both to scoring positions, Capital made a questionable decision to load the bases by intentionally walking Bradley Jones. The next batter Evan Wilson was walked on a full count for the Pios to sweep the Comets 3-2.
Marietta College managed to get a ranked win before the end of the season as they defeated #23 Washington & Jefferson in extra innings.The Pioneers lost to the Presidents back in March 14-2, but this time around three hits in the 10th were good enough to drive in the game winning runs. Final score 6-4.
The Express were led by Michael Ciavolella on offense as he batted a team leading 0.360 AVG, 1.122 OPS, 9 homeruns, 29 runs, and 33 RBIs. Diego Decello and Zack Molloy, also batted over .300 and Molloy led the team in steals with 7. Overall the team batted a 0.253 avg this year slightly below their 0.255 in 2025.
Austin Ziance and Luke Czarnomski starter the majority of the games this season. Ziance went 6-4 with a 1.91 ERA,1.01 WHIP, 1.7 BB/9, and 8.1 K/9. Czarnomski had a 3-4 record and finished with a 5.13 ERA, 1.41 WHIP, 11.2 K/9 and a 3.8 BB/9.
The team struggled in the bullpen with no reliever having a sub 5 ERA. This marks an issue that the Pios will look to address next season. However, some highlights include Alex Dues’ 1.46 WHIP and Jared Bees 9.4 K/9. All in all, the team had an average ERA of 5.77 which was far below their average of 4.57 in 2025 and 3.68 in 2024.
With another season ending comes another batch of graduating seniors. These players include pitchers Josh Pedersen and Jared Bees, infielder Thomson Babineau, utility players Shane Rothlisberger and Cooper Fiehrer, and student manager Keanu Lopez.
To keep up with Marietta College sports news over the summer visit pioneers.marietta.edu.
