The Wright State Men’s Baseball team opened their Horizon League Conference with a triple-game weekend against Oakland University. The team faced Kent State University on the prior Tuesday and finished with a win of 11-6.
Game one
The first game of the Friday doubleheader started slow, being scoreless in the first five innings. During those innings, the team reached a few walks, but could not get a run-off to score.
In the sixth inning of the game, Hunter Warren reached a single. With JP Pelitzer up to bat, he hit a 376-foot hammer home run, giving the Raiders a 2-0 lead at the end of the inning.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Grizzlies responded quickly, securing with a run on a single to the right field, bringing the score to 2-1. In the last inning of the game, JP Peliter secured his second home run of the game, earning the first victory of the weekend, 3-2.
“I was fortunate to be in the right spots at the right time, especially with how well the pitchers threw holding them to 2 runs all game and giving us a chance to win the game,” Peltier said.
Game two
Hunter Warren walking off of second base
Going into the second game of the day, the Raiders were on a high from their previous win. Within the first inning, the Raiders started strong with four runs.
Boston Smith hit the first run of the game, securing it with a hit off Patrick Fultz. With two on the base, Nate Manly hit a home run, securing those three runs for the Raiders.
Finishing the first inning up by four, the Raiders kept that momentum up throughout the game. In the top of the second inning, with Luke Arnold on base, Hunter Warren doubled down the left field, bringing the score to 5-0.
“My mindset when Arnold was on third base was go up there and find a way to score him any way I could,” Warren stated.
In the fifth inning, the Raiders had another sweep of runs to secure an eight-to-nothing lead. Fultz led with a single, moving to second on a Manely walk, and scored on a Gilkerson double.
The Grizzlies broke the shoutout in the seventh inning scoring three runs on a double. However, that did not throw off the Raiders as they made it into double digits in the eighth inning. The team finished the game with a 13-3 sweep against Oakland.
Game three
On Sunday, the Raiders had to play against unfortunate weather conditions, high winds, which caused a delay in the game. However, some did find a benefit to the high winds, including Cameron Allen.
“I would say it helped pitch to spots a lot more easily and I could land my pitches I wanted to a lot easier,” Allen said.
Although weather conditions were rough on Sunday, that did not stop the Raiders from scoring nine runs in the first inning of the game. Gilkerson reached on a hit-by-pitch, advancing Peltier to second before Daniel’s double drove in two runs and advanced Gilkerson to third, securing 4-0.
Arnold continued scoring, sending Daniel and Gilkerson to score, 6-0. The team continued to put runs out in the first inning, ending it 9-0.
In the second inning, Oakland wasted no time in securing two runs on an error, driving the score up to 9-2. The Raiders, however, did not up their score again until the fourth inning, in which they secured four runs led by Daniel and Clark, upping the score to 13-2.
The game continued with the Raiders securing four more runs, and Oakland trying to keep up with the game by securing nine runs by the seventh inning. However, those runs were not enough as the Raiders finished the game with a victory of 17-9, sweeping the Grizzlies.
The Raiders continued their winning streak against Toledo on March 18, finishing the game 6-1 on WSU's home field. The then team traveled to Milwaukee, loosing their streak in a 10-8 loss.
