Baseball season review

Baseball season review: The Wayne State baseball team’s season ended in the second round of the NCAA Midwest Regional on May 19, at the hands of the University of Indianapolis Greyhounds.

The Warriors took a 3-0 lead in the fifth inning, but couldn’t hold it, as the Hounds took the game, 8-4.

“We just ran into two tough innings in the middle of the ballgame from a defensive pitching standpoint,” Warriors head coach Ryan Kelley said. “We gave up too many runs back-to-back.”

WSU advanced to its third consecutive NCAA regional after appearing in the GLIAC tournament championship round, a loss to the Grand Valley Lakers.

“In the GLIAC tournament, we showed some good resiliency, good leadership [and] some good competitiveness,” Kelley said. “We just ran out of enough pitching and depth. We just couldn’t capitalize in the very final game.”

Despite the disappointing finish, the 2012 campaign was still a successful one.

“We’ve built a program that we want to have success every season,” Kelley said. “We’ve had three straight 30-plus win seasons, which is the first in the 72 year history of our program. “

WSU finished 34-21 overall, placed second in the GLIAC with a 21-12 conference record and advanced to its fifth NCAA regional.

While the Warriors had success on the field, they had success off of it as well.

“We had nearly 850 community service hours [and] our team grade point average is a 3.1,” Kelley said. “We’ve had a lot of guys do some successful things on and off the field.”

On the field, the team hit .305 for the season – .323 in conference play – and finished with a respectable 4.50 team ERA.

But the Warriors will lose some key players to graduation, as seven players received their diplomas this May.

“We had a good senior class,” Kelley said. “Our seniors this year founded some leadership trends and we look forward to carry over into next year and the year after that,” he said, noting the influence the seniors had.

Seven Warriors received All-GLIAC honors: Brad Guenther, Andrew Ciennik, Alex Trojan, Kyle Vessey and Billy Hurley were voted to the second team, while Alex Pierse and Ethan Vasiliauskas received honorable mention accolades.

Kasey Koster, Ciennik, Trojan and Pierse were named to the GLIAC All-Tournament Team.

Ciennik and Phil Swanson were selected to the Academic All-District Team, which recognizes student-athletes for their athletic and academic accomplishments.

“[Those guys] had quality seasons on and off the field. They performed well between the lines and they took care of business in the classroom,” Kelley said. “They all earned it, they worked hard and they represented the university very well.”

Despite losing some key players, Kelley doesn’t see his team taking a step back next season – on or off the field.

“Graduate and win,” he said. “We’re here to graduate, get good grades and we’re also here to win. We’ve got great work ethic and we’ve got great resources at Wayne State. We’re going to continue to use everything we have to push forward and win.”