The Ashland University baseball team took three of four games against visiting Purdue Northwest, finishing the series win with a 9-7 triumph over the Pride on Sunday (April 25) afternoon at Donges Field.
The Eagles (15-12, 10-6 GLIAC) are now tied with Davenport for second place in the GLIAC and have won two straight conference series after splitting their first two.
On Sunday, the Eagles fell behind, 1-0, after Jake Soules hit his second first-inning home run of the series.
Ashland responded in the bottom of the second on a sac fly by junior
Mike Flemming, tying the game at 1.
Senior left-hander
Josh Smith, making his first start of the season, kept the Pride (9-16, 3-13 GLIAC) off the board in the second, third and fourth innings and kept it tied until the Eagles scored four times with two outs in the bottom of the fourth.
The Eagles recorded five straight hits, including an RBI double by junior
Austin Eifrid, a two-run single by sophomore
Seth Schroeder and an RBI double by senior
Garett Robberts.
The Pride got two back in the fifth, but Flemming made it a 7-3 game with a two-run homer to right field in the bottom of the inning. It was his second home run of the season.
Purdue Northwest inched closer with three runs in the sixth, but reliever
Adam Schomburg struck out Ray Hilbrich with runners at second and third and the Eagles leading, 7-6.
The Eagles scored a pair of unearned runs on two hits and two errors in the sixth to take a 9-6 lead, the last of those runs coming on an RBI single by junior
Micah Allen.
Junior
Perry Bewley came on for the final out of the seventh inning with the Eagles holding a 9-7 lead. He then gave up just one hit over the final two innings to nail down his GLIAC-leading eighth save.
Smith (1-2) earned the win, allowing five earned runs in 5 1/3 innings with five strikeouts and three walks. Jackson Lund (0-2) suffered the loss for PNW, giving up five runs on nine hits in four innings.
Schroeder led the Eagles with three hits and a walk. He drove in a pair, scored two runs and stole a base. Robberts, Allen and junior
Logan Moss had two hits each.
The Eagles will now head to Parkside next weekend for a four-game set with the Rangers, beginning Friday at 4 p.m. ET.
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