MASON, Ohio – The first two hurdles have been cleared.
Needing to win four games over two days to take the 2022 Great Midwest Athletic Conference Tournament title, Ashland University's baseball team won the first two on Friday (May 13) - 13-3 in seven innings over Tiffin, then 8-3 over Kentucky Wesleyan.
Ashland (34-18) will play Walsh (29-20) on Saturday (May 14) at noon at Prasco Park to keep its season alive. A win in that game would mean a second title game to be played immediately following.
"The guys battle, compete. They never quit," said Ashland head coach
John Schaly. "Kind of put it together today. We've been waiting for the day when we put all the phases together – pitching, hitting, defense. And we did it today in both ball games.
"It's going to be a battle tomorrow. It's going to be fun. Both teams are going to come out and compete. It will be a fun day of ball."
WHAT HAPPENED
- Against Tiffin (29-19), the Eagles jumped on top in the top of the second inning when sophomore third baseman Devin Hukill hit a two-out RBI single to left field, then senior center fielder Sebastian Fabik scoring on a Dragons throwing error.
- Tiffin dented the scoreboard with an RBI single in the bottom of the third, but senior shortstop Austin Eifrid negated that with a two-run RBI single to right in the top of the fourth. Senior left fielder Seth Schroeder followed Eifrid with a two-run single to make it a 5-1 AU advantage.
- Ashland kept growing its lead in the top of the fifth, scoring three times to go up 8-1 on a sacrifice fly from Hukill and two Tiffin errors. The Dragons scored twice in the bottom of the fifth, them the Eagles plated run No. 9 in the top of the sixth on a ground-ball double play.
- In the top of the seventh, senior designated hitter Tim Zeller's RBI single, freshman second baseman Ian Sanders' two-run safety, and Hukill's bases-loaded walk put the Eagles ahead 13-3 – and ended the game early.
- Sanders was 4-for-5 with two RBIs and three runs scored, Hukill drove in three runs, Fabik was 2-for-2 with three runs scored, and Allen was 2-for-5. Eifrid stole three bases in the victory.
- Senior right-hander Jacob Harsany (7-4) allowed six hits, three runs (two earned) and three walks and struck out five in five innings.
- Friday night against the Panthers (26-28), the Eagles struck first in the bottom of the first on an Allen RBI groundout and a two-run Fabik double to right field. Kentucky Wesleyan responded quickly with a run in the top of the second, then another in the top of the third to cut the deficit to 3-2.
- Schroeder's run-scoring single to center in the bottom of the fifth extended AU's lead to 4-2, then Fabik's RBI double made it 5-2, and an overthrow error allowed another run to score for a 6-2 AU lead.
- An RBI groundout for the Panthers in the top of the seventh made it a 6-3 game, but Fabik countered with a run-scoring double to deep center field to re-extend the Ashland advantage to four runs at 7-3.
- Schroeder's two-out RBI single in the eighth provided the final margin of victory.
- Fabik finished 3-for-4 with three doubles and four RBIs, Schroeder was 3-for-5 with two RBIs, Eifrid was 3-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and two stolen bases, and Allen and senior catcher Brady Cottom each had two of AU's 15 hits.
- Said Fabik, "It's a tough squad. We see what we have to do, but it's one inning, one pitch, one game at a time. Eventually, you've got to roll it out there. We just stuck with our approach. We certainly believe, but we've got to stay focused. We'll see where that lands us."
- "We've got a lot of guys swinging it well, and hitting's contagious," Schaly said.
- Sophomore lefty Adam Schomburg (3-2) tossed three innings of two-hit, one-run relief to earn the win. He struck out three after coming in for freshman lefty Marshall Leishman, who pitched the final two innings against Tiffin, then went the first four frames against KWC.
- Leishman said the last time he did something like that on the same day was, "in high school, on my travel team. I saw my name on the relief part of the lineup, and just accepted it, embraced it, and willing to do anything for the team."
- "I've done it before, just not with an hour-and-a-half in-between," Schaly said of using a pitcher the way he did Leishman on Friday.
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