Baseball wins GLIAC tournament opener

Baseball wins GLIAC tournament opener: The Wayne State baseball team (31-7 overall) defeated the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals (24-25 overall), 4-2, in its opening game of the 2012 GLIAC tournament at V.A. Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio. It was the Warriors’ fourth-straight postseason victory over SVSU.

“Saginaw Valley and our team have had some battles the last few years,” Warriors head coach Ryan Kelley said prior to the game on wsuathletics.com. “We’ve got to play a full nine innings.”

And that they did. The pitching duel between both starting pitchers stole the show.

WSU starter Josh Wedesky (6-3 record) and SVSU’s Carson Beauchaine (3-5 record) were locked in, with Wedesky going 7 2/3 innings and both only gave up a combined 10 hits.

Wedesky, however, got off to a shaky start in the top of the first. He alternated strike outs and walks to the first four batters, and gave up a single and a run. But then he settled in.

Beauchaine, on the other hand, kept the Warriors off the board through four innings. But the Warriors broke through in the fifth when Chris Gebara drove-in Kyle Vesey. Kenny Davis then scored Alex Trojan with a sacrifice fly to give WSU a 2-1 lead.

Trojan led off the seventh with a single and scored on Gebara’s two-run homer, which made it a 4-1 game.

After giving up a run and surrendering two walks in the eighth, Wedesky was replaced by Ethan Vasiliauskas. He hit the first batter he faced, but recovered by striking out Andy Orr to end the inning.

Billy Hurley came on in the ninth, retiring the Cardinals in order to pick up his 11th save of the season and 19th of his career, which both broke Jon Venuto’s school records for saves in a single season and career.

The Warriors continue postseason play May 10 against Lake Erie College at 5:30 p.m.

“We’re looking forward to it,” Kelley said.