No. 8 Baseball Takes Two Late From KWC To Earn Road Sweep, Conference Tourney Spot

No one said winning 34 of the first 40 games of the season would be easy.
 
The No. 8-ranked Ashland University baseball team looked to finish a four-game Great Midwest Athletic Conference road sweep against Kentucky Wesleyan on Sunday (April 21), and accomplished just that with 4-1 and 2-1 (11 innings) victories.
 
With their 11^th win in the last 12 games, and 20^th in the last 23, the Eagles improve to 34-6 overall and 20-4 in the Great Midwest. Ashland started the day with a three-game lead on three second-place teams in the league, and ended the weekend with not only a four-game lead over Trevecca Nazarene, Northwood and Findlay, but with a clinched spot in the 2024 Great Midwest Tournament, May 8-11 at Prasco Park in Mason, Ohio.
 
The Panthers are 14-25, 12-10.
 
Sunday's first game saw Ashland collect just four hits, but one came at just the right time, as the Eagles broke a 1-1 tie with a three-spot in the top of the sixth inning. After AU took a 2-1 lead on a run coming home on a KWC error, sophomore second baseman Gavin Dobbels hit an insurance two-run single for the final margin of victory.
 
The nightcap was a pitchers' duel par excellence between Ashland junior right-hander Cam Scott and Panthers senior righty Seth Wright. Wright no-hit the Eagles through the first eight innings, and allowed one hit, no runs and four walks and struck out nine.
 
Scott (6-0), however, earned the win by going the first 10 1/3 innings, striking out seven and allowing three hits and an unearned run. He becomes the first Eagle hurler to pitch more than nine innings in a game this century (2000-current).
 
After both teams scored for the first time in the 10^th inning, Ashland plated the eventual winning run in the top of the 11^th on an RBI single from Dobbels. The Panthers had a runner on third base with one out, but graduate right-hander Cal Johnston got the last two outs for the sweep.
 
POST-GAME NUGGETS

• In Game 1, Dobbels was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a stolen base. Junior lefty Marshall Leishman (7-0) struck out six in six innings, allowing five hits, a run and two walks, and junior righty Ethan Stevens became the sixth Eagle to earn a save in 2024 with a scoreless seventh.
• Then, in Game 2, Johnston become the seventh AU pitcher to earn a save this season.

UP NEXT
Back to Tomassi Stadium and Donges Field at the Archer Ballpark Complex for a non-conference home game on Tuesday (April 23) at 3 p.m. vs. Gannon (6-29).