Eagles Top Cavs, Take Three Of Four In Home Series

Entering Saturday (April 16) in second place in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference standings, Ashland University's baseball team didn't hurt that standing, taking a 13-3 decision from Walsh at Tomassi Stadium and Donges Field at the Archer Ballpark Complex.
 
The Eagles improve to 22-11 overall and 14-6 in the league after their 13^th win in the last 16 contests, while the Cavaliers are 16-14, 8-9.
 
"It was a good weekend," said Ashland head coach John Schaly. "Overall, we played well, in most all phases.
 
"There's still a lot of ball, three more series. We're setting good. We've just got to keep improving and keep winning."
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• The story of the day was junior right-hander Josh Meyer (3-2), who pitched eight shutout innings to drop his 2022 earned-run average from 6.28 to 4.91. He allowed six hits and four walks and struck out nine.
• "Today, obviously, great pitching from Josh and played great defense. We put up runs in almost every inning," Schaly said.
• Scoreless until the bottom of the second inning, the game swung in Ashland's direction on senior right fielder Dillan Smith's two-run home run. Freshman second baseman Ian Sanders followed with an RBI double, then senior center fielder Sebastian Fabik with a run-scoring single and senior designated hitter Tim Zeller with a sacrifice fly, in the fourth for a 5-0 lead.
• In the bottom of the sixth, freshman left fielder Cam Miller's RBI triple and sophomore third baseman Devin Hukill's RBI squeeze bunt single pushed the AU lead to 7-0.
• Ashland put up three-run innings in both the seventh and eighth to round out its scoring.
• Sanders was 3-for-4 with three RBIs, a double and a triple, and Fabik, Smith and Hukill all drove in two runs. In the four-game series, Smith was 6-for-15 with two doubles, a triple, a homer and four RBIs.
• "You go 0-for-4 and win, it's a great day. If you go 4-for-4 and lose, it's a bad day," said Smith. "Playing at home, there's no better feeling, with the fans here and everything."
• "He's one of those fifth-year senior guys, and one of our leaders," Schaly said of Smith. "We expect great things from him."
• Ashland turned three ground-ball double plays and committed just one error in the victory.
• "Our defense is coming around," said Schaly. "If you have pitching and defense, you are always in the game. If you get the big hit, you can win it."
• Said Meyer, "The defense was amazing today. Double plays helped a tremendous amount today. Gotta love double plays. It's a great confidence booster."

 
UP NEXT
Ashland will go out of league play for a doubleheader on Tuesday (April 19) at 1 p.m. at Mercyhurst.