Baseball vs. Fort Wayne | Photo by Stephen Hopkins | The Wright State Guardian
The Wright State University baseball team hit the road a couple weekends ago for a three-game series against Bradley University, winning two of three games. The Raiders entered this weekend series after sweeping their last two weekend matchups.
Series opener
The series kicked off Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader at Dozer Park. Game one was a seven-inning affair.
Jake Shirk took the mound for WSU. He threw five innings, giving up only four hits and three walks. Shirk posted two strikeouts and left the game without giving up a run.
WSU struggled to get the bats going in the series opener, only posting two hits on the final scorecard. However, the Raiders capitalized from three errors posted by Bradley, willing themselves to a hard-fought victory in the first of the two games Saturday.
In the top of the fifth inning, Jay Luikart drew the only walk of the game and later scored after Andrew Patrick reached base on an error.
In the sixth inning, Justin Riemer opened with a leadoff single to put the Raiders in the hit column. Riemer advanced to third after a throwing error from Bradley’s pitcher. Riemer then scored the second run for WSU on a sacrifice fly to center field by Zane Harris.
Both two runs and two hits for the Raiders proved to be enough as their bullpen gave up one hit and struck out four of Bradley’s hitters in two innings. Jay Luikart was credited with the save, and WSU opened the series with a 2-0 victory.
Raiders fall short in 10-inning dual
WSU lost the second game of the doubleheader, losing in extra-innings after coming back late in the game.
The scoring started early as WSU put up two, first-inning runs. The Raiders are notorious this season for striking early in games.
Riemer and Alec Sayre produced back-to-back singles and pulled off a double steal. Gehrig Anglin walked to load the bases, allowing Riemer to score from another Zane Harris sacrifice fly. WSU scored its second run after Sammy Sass singled to left and scored Sayre.
Sebastian Gongora was the starting pitcher for WSU, pitching five-innings with eight strikeouts. Gongora gave up two runs to the Braves in the sixth before coming out of the game.
In the top of the fourth, Jay Luikart launched a home run to the right field to go up 3-0.
Bradley went on to score four runs in the sixth, taking the lead on WSU 4-3.
Bradley eventually prevailed with the win by scoring an unearned run on a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the tenth inning. The Braves evened the Raiders on the day and forced a series-deciding finale.
Raiders’ offense explodes for series victory
WSU entered Dozer Park Sunday and dominated the Braves to win the series while producing a season-high, 20 runs from 17 hits.
The Raiders scored three or more runs in five of the first six innings of the game while Bradley only managed three total by the sixth.
In the opening frame, Harris produced the first score. Sammy Sass followed with a three-run homer to go up 4-0.
The Raiders nearly replicated the first inning by scoring from an RBI-double by Riemer and another three-run shot by Anglin to increase the lead to 8-0 after two-innings.
With the bases loaded in the third, Patrick earned an RBI after being hit by a pitch. Julian Greenwell kept the scoring going with a grand slam to left field. WSU led 13-1 after three innings.
Luikart hit an RBI single up the middle in the top of the fourth inning.
In the fifth, Sayre doubled down the left-field line and produced two more RBIs. Harris hit his third sacrifice fly of the series and plate the third and final run of the fifth inning.
Patrick closed out the scoring for WSU in the sixth with a three-run shot.
Greenwell and Patrick led the team with four RBIs each, followed by three from both Anglin and Sass.
Alex Theis improved to 3-0 on the season and the Raiders sealed their third consecutive series victory.
