With three games left in the season, Wright State finds itself in familiar territory: first place in the Horizon League. A weekend sweep of Youngstown State pushed the Raiders (36-16 overall, 20-7 in league play) one game ahead of Valparaiso in the conference. In game one against the Penguins, the WSU batters demolished the opposing pitchers on their way to a 15-3 win. Six Raiders—Jake Hibberd, Tristan Moore, Ryan Ashe, Garret Gray, Corey Davis and Kyle Mossbarger—had multi-hit games. “I thought we put together some real quality at-bats,” said Head Coach Rob Cooper. “I thought some guys had real good approaches against their pitching and we took advantage of some errors by them, and we were able to get some big innings.” Raider starter Taylor Braun earned his sixth win of the year in the effort by allowing only one run in seven innings of work. “He’s been real steady for us,” said Cooper. “Every time he goes out and pitches, he gives us a chance to win, and that’s what you ask for from one of your starters—a guy that can go out and give you a solid effort every time and that’s what he’s doing.” WSU opened the second game of the series with an RBI by Moore in the first inning, but fell behind 3-1 after five. The bats finally woke up in the sixth behind RBIs from Davis and Justin Kopale and two Penguin errors. “We took advantage of some errors by them,” said Cooper. “I didn’t like the way we swung the bat on Saturday or Sunday, but I thought we competed enough to win both games. But we really didn’t do enough to make the opposing pitcher work either day. But we found a way to win.” Though YSU chased WSU starter Andrew Elliot from the game after four innings, reliever Jordan Marker earned his ninth win of the year by pitching four innings of shutout ball in the 6-3 win. “I don’t know if I can truly explain Jordan’s value to us,” said Cooper. “The guy’s unbelievable. He’s done this his entire career and he got the win on Saturday and the save on Sunday, so he’s really been good for us. You can’t say enough about him.” In the series finale, the Raiders once again found themselves behind 3-1 after five innings. Another sixth inning rally—off sacrifice flies from Kopale and Mossbarger—tied the game, while a Davis seventh inning double put WSU ahead for good. Davis (3-4, 2 RBIs) and Kopale (2-3, 2 RBI) sparked the Raiders, but reliever Joey Hoelzel kept WSU in the game. Hoelzel pitched 4.2 innings and gave up only one run after starter Cody Kopilchack left the game in the second inning. “The guy who saved the game for us on Sunday was Joey Hoelzel. Joey Hoelzel came in out of the bullpen and really pitched well. He deserves a lot of credit.” The 5-3 win was the fourth straight for the Raiders heading into this weekend’s series against Milwaukee. As they prepare for next week’s Horizon League tournament, Cooper wants to build momentum but doesn’t think it will decide his team’s fate. “It’s always good to get momentum and feel good about yourself going into the tournament, but I’ve been on both sides,” said Cooper. “There’s been one year where the series before we played terrible before the tournament then we got hot and won the tournament. The other times I felt like we were playing our best baseball the weekend before and went in and didn’t win the tournament.” “The big thing is just trying to get better and keeping our guys healthy,” said Cooper.
