The Ashland University baseball team returned to Donges Field on Saturday (March 20) afternoon for the first time since claiming the Midwest Region title on the field on May 25, 2019, but Seton Hill spoiled the return with a narrow 8-7 win over the Eagles.
The Eagles (3-5) had a chance to tie the game in the ninth inning with junior
Logan Moss at third base with one out, but Seton Hill right fielder Brandon Kline threw him out with a perfect throw as Moss tried to score on a fly ball by senior
Carson Mittermaier to end the game.
The defeat snapped a 16-game regular season home winning streak for Ashland.
Seton Hill (7-0) remained undefeated on the young season with the win, scoring three unearned runs on two Ashland errors in the eighth to take an 8-7 lead. The Eagles committed five errors in the game.
The game was a back-and-forth affair with the Eagles answering each Seton Hill scoring inning with one of their own.
Owen Sabol gave the Griffins a 1-0 lead with a solo homer in the second inning sandwiched around terrific pitching by junior right-hander
Josh Stover.
Stover struck out the side in the first inning and got a groundout and two more strikeouts in the second inning following the homer.
The Eagles tied the game in the third on an RBI groundout by junior
Mike Flemming before a three-run single by Jamie Wrabel gave the Griffins a 4-1 lead in the fourth.
Ashland answered right back with their own three-run inning with a two-run single by junior
Austin Eifrid and Flemming's bases-loaded walk to tie the game at 4.
An error plated another run for the Griffins in the fifth, but the Eagles took a 7-5 lead in the sixth, getting a clutch two-run double by Mittermaier and an RBI hit-by-pitch by junior
Alex Whipple.
Junior right-hander
Perry Bewley relieved left-hander
Alex Bish in the seventh, but ran into trouble in the eighth as the Griffins scored three runs on three hits and two errors.
Bewley got a double play and a strikeout in the ninth to keep it at an 8-7 game.
Moss then led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk and went to second on Eifrid's sac bunt. He moved to third on a base hit by senior
Garett Robberts, but Mittermaier's flyout turned into a double play to end the game.
Stover did not factor in the decision, striking out seven and allowing four earned runs in 4 1/3 innings. Bish went two innings and did not give up a run with three strikeouts while Bewley (1-1) suffered the loss by giving up three unearned runs.
Caiden Wood (3-0) earned the relief win for Seton Hill with 1 2/3 scoreless innings and Nash Bryan picked up his first save with two scoreless relief innings.
Eifrid led the offense by going 3-for-4 with a hit-by-pitch, two runs and two RBI. Robberts and junior
Logan Stoldt also had three hits each as the Eagles out-hit the Griffins, 13-12.
The Eagles and Griffins will finish their brief two-game set on Sunday (March 21) at 2 p.m. in Greensburg, Pa.
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