On Saturday (March 23) afternoon at Tomassi Stadium and Donges Field at the Archer Ballpark Complex, the No. 14-ranked Ashland University baseball team lost to Lake Erie, 9-7, in Game 2 of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference series.
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The Eagles are 14-3 overall and 1-1 in the league – missing an opportunity for the best 17-game start in program history in 70 years. The Storm are 11-10, 3-3.
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The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third inning, when, with two outs, graduate shortstop
Devin Hukill's triple was followed by an RBI single by sophomore catcher
Collin Overholt and a Storm error to plate a second run.
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A wild pitch gave Lake Erie its first run in the top of the fourth, then the Storm put up six more runs to take a 7-2 lead after 3½ innings.
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Ashland began a comeback with two outs in the bottom of the fourth, when junior left fielder
Max Caron's RBI infield single made it a 7-3 game, then two more runs came in on the same play – an RBI single from junior center fielder
Cam Miller, and a subsequent error.
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Lake Erie used a wild pitch, an error and an RBI double to go up 9-5 through 4½ frames, and the score stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh, when junior pinch-hitter
Ben Peltz launched a two-run homer to cut the AU deficit in half.
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Sophomore left-hander
John Essig got out of a bases-loaded, one-out situation in the top of the eighth, but the Eagles could get no closer.
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POST-GAME NUGGETS
- Essig tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief to keep the Storm at bay, allowing two hits and two walks and striking out seven. The loss went to junior righty Hunter Allen (0-1), who gave up two hits, five runs (four earned) and three walks and whiffed seven in 3 2/3 frames.
- Recording two hits each in AU's 11-hit attack where sophomore second baseman Gavin Dobbels, junior designated hitter Ian Sanders and junior first baseman Joey Bertani.
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UP NEXT
Games 3 and 4 of the series on Sunday (March 24), starting at 1 p.m..
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