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Baseball takes Joe Nuxhall classic and UIC series

Things are starting to click for the Wright State baseball team.

WSU is coming off a successful weekend where the team won the Joe Nuxhall classic in Cincinnati for the second straight season. The Raiders followed it with a series victory on the road against Illinois-Chicago in the Windy City.

WSU’s record now sits at 16-17 and an even 6-6 in the conference, which is good enough for a second place tie—two games back of leader Milwaukee.

Last weekend’s Joe Nuxhall classic at UC saw the Raiders face other local universities in southwest Ohio.

WSU soundly put away the Miami Redhawks in game one by a score of 10-2. Starting pitcher E.J. Trapino was unable to get out of the fourth inning after giving up the two lone Redhawk runs. Reliever Cody Kopilchack came in firing bullets, allowing no hits and just one walk while striking out six in four innings of work. WSU pitching held Miami hitless from the fifth inning on.

The hits WSU didn’t give up to Miami were given up to the Cincinnati Bearcats the following evening. Cincinnati scored 16 runs on 17 hits but even that wasn’t enough to stop a WSU offense which racked up 20 hits in a 19-16 win.

UC helped the Raider offense by committing six errors, but the Raiders feasted on Bearcat pitching as well. Eight of the nine WSU starters in the lineup finished with more than one base hit.
WSU manager Rob Cooper said he was proud his team found a way to win.

“It was not a pretty game by any means,” Cooper said. “But when we got down, we came right back and found a way to win. It’s always good to beat the teams in your area.”

After finishing the slate of games in Cincinnati, the Raiders quickly turned their attention to conference foe UIC. After dropping the opening game to the Flames 6-1 on Friday, the Raiders swept a double header on Saturday by scores of 6-4 and 11-6.

Cooper said before the Joe Nuxhall Classic he challenged his team to lose at the minimum one out of the five games they were scheduled to play in order to simulate the upcoming Horizon League Tournament, which is a double-elimination format.

Cooper said his team faces the challenge of winning multiple games in a row to take home a conference championship, something WSU last did in 2011.

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