Ashland University's baseball team moved one step closer to leading the Great Midwest Athletic Conference's North Division on Thursday (April 27), as the Eagles swept a doubleheader at Lake Erie, 9-5 and 6-2.
Thanks to extending its winning streak to five games, Ashland is 31-13 overall and 20-6 in the Great Midwest, now one game behind first-place Northwood in the North. The Eagles have won 20 straight against the Storm, and are 24-8 since coming back from the annual Florida trip.
Lake Erie is 6-35, 5-21.
In Game 1, the Storm took a 2-0 lead with single runs in the bottom of second and third innings. Ashland's response came in the fourth, as redshirt freshman catcher
Collin Overholt collected an RBI single, then sophomore center fielder
Cam Miller's run-scoring fielder's choice tied the game at 2.
A sacrifice fly lifted by sophomore third baseman
Cam Scott in the fifth gave AU its first lead of the day at 3-2, but Lake Erie came back with a three-spot in the bottom of the frame to take a 5-3 advantage.
Then, in the sixth, Overholt's second RBI of the game, this one on a triple, cut the Eagle deficit in half at 5-4. Overholt then scored on a balk for another tie at 5. Miller came home on a wild pitch in the sixth to give Ashland the lead once again, and the lead was extended to 7-5 in the seventh on Overholt's third RBI of the contest on a single.
Also in the seventh, fifth-year left fielder
Seth Schroeder and sophomore first baseman
Sam Witt added run-scoring singles for the final 9-5 gap.
Game 2 started with the Eagles scoring first, as Witt's sacrifice fly made it a 1-0 game early. Schroeder's two-run double in the second upped Ashland's lead to 3-0, then Witt's RBI single in the second made it 4-0.
Schroeder's third hit and RBI of the nightcap in the fourth increased AU's lead to 5-0, and later in the fourth, sophomore catcher
Ben Peltz's RBI single made it 6-0.
Lake Erie dented the scoreboard in Game 2 in the sixth, scoring twice.
NOTABLES
- Sophomore right-hander Matt Hall (1-0) earned his first collegiate win in Thursday's opener, going the first five innings and allowing six hits, five runs (four earned) and no walks while striking out five. Another sophomore, lefty Marshall Leishman, earned his first collegiate save thanks to four shutout innings of relief, allowing one hit and one walk and whiffing five.
- Schroeder, Witt and Overholt each had three of Ashland's 15 hits in Game 1.
- In Game 2, sophomore lefty Brendan Beaver (6-1) went the first four innings scoreless, striking out eight and allowing one hit and one walk.
- Schroeder was 3-for-5 with a double, a run scored and three RBIs. He had six hits on Thursday, and has 25 multi-hit games this spring (nine three-hit games).
- Ashland has won at least 30 games for the 23rd time in program history.
UP NEXT
The end of the four-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday (April 29) at 1 p.m.
