In its last regular-season road series of 2024, the No. 7-ranked Ashland University baseball team finished 2-2 at Findlay – splitting Sunday's (April 28) games with a 7-2 win and a 13-3 loss in eight innings.
The Eagles go into the last four games of the regular season at 36-9 overall and 22-6 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, and with a three-game lead over second-place Trevecca Nazarene and Northwood in search of their first Great Midwest regular-season championship.
Ashland wasted little time going ahead in Sunday's opener, scoring a run in the top of the first on an RBI fielder's choice off the bat of junior third baseman
Jeremiah Cangelosi. Sophomore second baseman
Gavin Dobbels' two-run single and sophomore catcher
Collin Overholt's sacrifice fly in the top of the second put AU ahead by a 4-0 count.
Another two-run hit, this one from junior left fielder
Max Caron, lifted the Eagles to a 6-0 lead in the top of the fourth. By the top of the fifth, Ashland led 7-0 thanks to a run-scoring single from junior
Cam Miller.
Findlay (24-20, 18-10) scored a run in the bottom of the sixth and seventh, but that was all the Oilers earned off junior right-handed pitcher
Cam Scott (7-0), who went the first 6 1/3 innings, struck out five, and allowed four hits, two runs (one earned) and three walks.
To start Game 2, Ashland jumped on top once again, when junior catcher
Ben Peltz lifted a sac fly in the top of the first. Findlay got off a fast start, however, scoring twice in the bottom of the first and once in the third for a 3-1 advantage.
The Eagles' mid-inning rally began in the top of the fourth, when sophomore right fielder
Chris Franks and Peltz went back-to-back on solo home runs to tie the score at 3. Findlay, however, posted a three-run inning in the fourth and a four-run frame in the sixth inning to go back on top, 10-3.
Another Oiler run in the seventh and two more in the eighth provided the final margin of victory in the nightcap.
POST-GAME NUGGETS
- In Game 1, Miller ended 4-for-4 with a double, stolen base, RBI and three runs scored, while Dobbels was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs.
- Senior righty Justin Dyksma (3-1) yielded five hits, six runs (two earned) and four walks and struck out three in 4 1/3 innings.
UP NEXT
The last four regular-season games of the 2024 season at Tomassi Stadium and Donges Field at the Archer Ballpark Complex vs. Tiffin (21-22, 16-12) on Thursday-Saturday (May 2-4).
