Garrett Peters | Photo by Monica Brutto | The Wright State Guardian
The Wright State University men’s baseball team swept the Grizzlies of Oakland University for its second conference series win of the season.
Series opener
The Raiders showcased its resiliency in the opening game before dominating the second and third games for the series sweep.
In the opening game of the series, WSU was in full response mode as the team kept matching the runs of the Grizzlies.
In the first two innings, Oakland and WSU scored five runs each. Senior Gehrig Anglin launched a two-run home run that carried through the wind to left field followed by a RBI single from freshman Patrick Fultz.
“I’m just staying back and seeing it out of the hand well,” Anglin said. “I’m taking what I can get.”
After 10 combined runs in the first two innings, neither team was able to find runs for the next four innings.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Grizzlies added two more to its tally, going up 7-5. In the bottom half of the seventh, sophomore Andrew Patrick connected on an RBI double followed by a RBI single from Fultz.
In the bottom half of the eighth, Fultz added another RBI double to take the lead.
In the top of the ninth inning, Oakland played catch-up for the first time of the game, tying the game at 8-8.
In the bottom of the ninth inning, junior Sammy Sass crushed a walkoff home run to secure a 10-8 victory.
“I was just trying to pick my teammates up and put a good swing on it,” Sass mentioned.
On the mound, junior Jay Luikart was credited with a personal first win of the season in the series-opening victory.
The first game served as an additional reminder that this WSU team refuses to give up after coming back three separate times.
“We’re just unfazed, some people call it swagger, and others call it mojo, " Anglin added. “Whatever it is, we’ve got it.”
Game two
In the first game of a Sunday doubleheader, the Raiders were in firm control of the Grizzlies throughout the game.
Patrick recorded a RBI from a sacrifice fly in the second inning to go up 1-0. WSU would tally four runs in both the fourth and eighth innings to win the game by a final of 9-1.
Sophomore Sebastian Gongora was credited with the victory after throwing eight scoreless innings while recording seven strikeouts.
Patrick led all batters with three-RBI’s, with sophomores Luke Arnold and Boston Smith each claiming one RBI.
Series sweep
In the third and final game of the series, WSU was set on cruise control.
After two scoreless innings, WSU put up three runs in the third-inning, four in the fourth-inning, five in the sixth-inning and one in the seventh-inning.
Patrick, Fultz, Luikart and freshman Carson Clark each tallied two RBI’s in the final game. Junior Julian Greenwell and freshman Dane Thomas each added a single RBI along with Sass.
Junior Luke Stofel claimed the win on the mound after pitching five scoreless innings to go along with six strikeouts.
Winning streak
With the series sweep, WSU has now won seven consecutive games, going 9-1 over the last 10 games.
“Every time they scored, we followed with the same amount of runs or more," head coach Alex Sogard stated. “It was a really good job by our offense.”
WSU is set to host Xavier University this Wednesday before traveling to Highland Heights, Kentucky to face off with arch-rival Northern Kentucky on Friday for a three-game series.
