WSU Baseball vs Army | Photo by Monica Brutto | The Wright State Guardian
The Wright State University baseball team hosted Army in its first home series of the season. The Raiders showed great resilience as the team came back in two games and won the series.
Game one
The first game of the series took place on Saturday, March 11, as part of a doubleheader. The game was originally scheduled for Friday afternoon but was moved due to weather.
Sophomore Justin Riemer launched a home run to lead off the bottom of the first inning, extending the base streak to 21 consecutive games.
WSU struggled past Riemers home run, as it was the only run the Raiders could produce.
Junior Jake Shirk was credited with the loss after pitching six-innings, giving up four earned runs.
WSU dropped the series opener by a final score of 8-1.
Game two
The Raiders had an immediate turnaround following the series-opening loss.
WSU and Army kept going back and forth in the second showing.
Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth-inning, the Raiders rallied and scored two runs after Julian Greenwell and Boston Smith had sacrifice RBI’s.
In the bottom of the seventh-inning, Jay Luikart singled to right field to score the game-leading run.
Tristan Haught was credited with the win after coming in relief for starting pitcher Sebastian Gongora.
Gongora pitched five-innings, giving up one earned run and striking out eight batters. Haught gave up two runs over three-innings pitched.
WSU would hang on to win the second game by a final score of 5-4, forcing a rubber match in the series finale.
Game three
On a frigid Sunday afternoon, WSU returned to action in the final game of the series against Army.
Trailing 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth-inning, Senior Gehrig Anglin launched a two-run home run to bring the raiders back within two.
“I was just looking for a good pitch to hit; something I could drive,” Anglin said. “It caught the barrel and flew out.”
In the seventh-inning, WSU scored six runs, taking the lead for the first time. Freshman Parker Harrison hit a double that produced two RBI’s.
“I got a good pitch to hit and was just trying to drive in some runs,” Harrison added.
The Raiders managed to hold the lead, ultimately winning 9-7.
WSU has shown that no matter the score of the game, the team should never be counted out.
“Our big thing is to keep playing the game even when we get down early; I always tell our guys to continue to chip and claw and fight for runs,” coach Alexander Sogard said.
The Raiders came back in two of the games to help win the series. WSU has a lot of veteran players who believe in the group.
“We’re just a bunch of dogs; we’re never backing down,” Anglin said. “We’re just a bunch of savage beasts out here.”
Moving forward
WSU will welcome University of Toledo Wednesday afternoon before hosting Purdue Fort Wayne in the first conference series of the season on Friday.
Wednesday’s showdown with Toledo will start at 3 p.m. Listen to the Raiders on WWSU 106.9 FM.
