Baseball splits doubleheader at Hillsdale

Baseball splits doubleheader at Hillsdale: The Wayne State baseball team (21-12, 12-8 GLIAC) split its doubleheader with the Hillsdale College Chargers (9-27, 7-17 GLIAC) April 18. The two teams combined to score 42 runs, with the Warriors dropping game one, 11-5, but recovering for a 17-9 victory in game two.

*Game One*

The Warriors struck first, scoring two runs in the top of the second inning. Chris Gebara’s single to right field drove-in Eric Cunningham and Kyle Vesey, who both singled earlier in the inning.

WSU held the lead until the fourth inning when the Chargers went on a tear. They scored six runs off of WSU pitchers Kyle Zimmerman and Kirk Stambaugh. Zimmerman started the game for the Warriors, giving up four runs on five hits in 3 1/3 innings.

The Warriors rallied for three runs in the top of the sixth, cutting the deficit to one run after a three-run homer by Kasey Koster.

But Hillsdale pulled away in the bottom half of the inning, scoring five runs to extend their lead. WSU went down in order in the seventh.

*Game Two*

The Warriors took an early lead, scoring two runs in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly by Andrew Ciennik and an RBI single by Cunningham. Hillsdale got a run back in the bottom of the inning.

A two-run single by Vesey, a sacrifice fly by Alex Trojan and a RBI single from Cunningham gave the Warriors a 6-1 lead.

A seven-run third inning extended the WSU lead to 13-1. Hillsdale followed with a seven-run inning of their own and added a run in the fifth.

Another four-run inning by the Warriors, highlighted by Koster’s second three-run homer of the day, secured the victory for WSU.

WSU hosts Ashland for a four-game series this weekend starting April 21 at 1 p.m.