On Thursday (March 27) at Cedarville, the No. RV Ashland University baseball team used three separate three-run innings – including in the eighth for the eventual winning runs – to top the Yellow Jackets, 11-10, to start a four-game Great Midwest Athletic Conference series.
The Eagles, thanks to a fourth straight decision and 10
th win in the last 11 contests, move to 16-7 overall and 8-1 in the league – 1½ games behind first-place Northwood in the North Division standings.
Thursday's win is the AU baseball program's 1,898
th all-time – two away from 1,900. It also is Eagle head coach
John Schaly's 1,330
th victory all-time, one away from tying Larry Cochell for 23
rd on the all-time NCAA all-levels list.
After the Yellow Jackets put up three runs in the bottom of the first inning, the Eagles came back with their own three-spot in the top of the second. Freshman second baseman
Gage Weaver's RBI single got AU on the board, then junior left fielder
Billy Howard knotted the score with two-run single.
Cedarville posted single runs in the third and fourth to go up 5-3, but Weaver's second RBI of the day – on a ground out – got the Eagles closer at 5-4 in the fifth. Later in the frame, freshman right fielder
Sean Krueckeberg's two-out, two-run hit put Ashland on top for the first time in the contest at 6-5.
Then, in the sixth, senior catcher
Ben Peltz's run-scoring double moved the AU lead to 7-5. Howard scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to increase the advantage to 8-5.
The Yellow Jackets, however, came back with five runs in the bottom of the seventh to re-take the lead at 10-8. Four of those five runs came across following a two-out Eagle error.
Weaver came through with his third RBI of the day on a two-out single in the eighth to cut the AU deficit in half, and that set up Howard to drive in his third and fourth runs of the contest with a single later in the eighth for the final margin of victory.
CARTER INVOLVED IN ANOTHER WIN…AND THE REST OF THE STORY
- In getting the game's final out, senior right-hander Chase Carter earned his sixth save of the season. Carter has either saved or been the winner in nine of the Eagles' 16 victories so far in 2025.
- Senior lefty John Essig (2-0) got the relief win, going 2 2/3 innings, striking out four and allowing two hits, two runs (both unearned) and a walk.
- Senior third baseman Jeremiah Cangelosi finished 3-for-5 with four runs scored and two doubles, while Peltz was 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored.
- Thursday's game featured 21 runs, 26 hits, three errors, 21 strikeouts and 23 runners left on base.
UP NEXT
The middle games of the series at 1 and 4 p.m. on Friday (March 28).
