The 2023 college baseball season is getting late early, and, with less than a month to go in the regular season, Ashland University's baseball team is making moves.
On Friday (April 7) at Tomassi Stadium and Donges Field at the Archer Ballpark Complex, the Eagles swept Malone, 1-0 and 4-0, to start a key four-game Great Midwest Athletic Conference series. Not only did the two wins allow Ashland to keep pace atop the North Division at 20-9 overall and 11-3 in the league, the two shutouts were the first for AU against the same team on the same day since April 17, 2013 at Tiffin.
The last time the Eagles shut out the same team twice on the same day at home was April 26, 2006 against Hillsdale.
Northwood continues to lead the North Division at 13-1 in the league, but Walsh (10-2) and Ashland both are eight games above .500 in the conference in the quest for second place in the North.
Game 1 was a prime pitchers' dual between Ashland sophomore left-hander
Brendan Beaver and Malone (15-15, 4-10) junior right-hander Mitch Maurer. It was a scoreless tie going into the bottom of the seventh, with the Eagles breaking through with an RBI from sophomore shortstop
Jeremiah Cangelosi.
Beaver, one of the top starting pitchers in the first part of the 2023 NCAA Division II season, went 7 2/3 innings, allowed three hits, no runs and five walks and struck out eight in moving to 4-0. His season earned-run average dropped to 1.60.
Malone loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the eighth, but junior right-hander
Zac Common got out of the jam and finished the game for his first save as an Eagle.
Game 2 was more of the same, as it was scoreless until a bases-loaded walk drawn by sophomore left fielder
Ian Sanders with two outs in the bottom of the fourth broke the scoreless draw. Ashland added two more runs in the fifth on a two-out run-scoring single from fifth-year third baseman
Seth Schroeder and the same from sophomore first baseman
Sam Witt.
The Eagles provided the final margin of victory in the sixth when redshirt freshman right fielder
Chris Franks hit an RBI triple.
NOTABLES
- In Game 1, Cangelosi was 2-for-2 with an RBI, as Ashland managed just five hits.
- The nightcap saw senior right-hander Josh Meyer (3-2) author a five-hit shutout over six innings, striking out eight and walking two. Meyer dropped his season ERA to 2.29.
- Common earned his second save of the day with a scoreless seventh inning.
- Schroeder was 2-for-3 with a run scored, an RBI and a stolen base in Game 2.
- Ashland went errorless in back-to-back games since the second and third games of the season on Feb. 26 at Concord.
QUOTABLES
- "Pitching and defense," said Ashland head coach John Schaly. "Both starts, great starts. Zac came in and got two saves. All three guys threw great, and we played two errorless games. You get the big hit, and you win it. They were just two good college baseball games."
- "We knew he was going to be a good one. We didn't know for sure how good," Schaly said of Beaver. "He's having a great year."
- Beaver said, "I just try to do my best every time with what I have. It's always cool games, because one pitcher is going to come out on top. You've got to give respect to the other guy, too."
- "He was throwing a little harder today," Schaly said of Meyer. "I think now he's starting to get comfortable and feel good. He's a senior now, so he's been through the college baseball world."
- "It feels good to get a lot of innings this year," Meyer said. "Nothing better than two good wins, get the confidence up for the next day."
- Of Common, Schaly said, "For the last few weeks, we've decided he's our closer."
UP NEXT
The end of the four-game series at home on Saturday (April 8) at 1 p.m.
