In the middle games of a Great Midwest Athletic Conference road series on Friday (March 28), the No. RV Ashland University baseball team split with Cedarville – winning 8-2 and losing 4-3.
The Eagles are 2 1/2 games behind Northwood for first place in the conference's North Division, and are 17-8 overall and 9-2 in the league. The Yellow Jackets are 12-15, 5-6.
Game 1 was AU's 1,899
th all-time victory – one away from the 1,900 mark. Head coach
John Schaly's 1,331 all-time wins leave him in a tie for 23
rd on the NCAA all-time, all-levels list.
Friday's opener saw the Eagles score right away when junior left fielder
Billy Howard launched a lead-off home run in the top of the first inning – his first of 2025. Ashland added to its first-inning total later thanks to a sacrifice fly from senior catcher
Ben Peltz, then an RBI single by sophomore first baseman
Kaiden Mastri.
The Eagles continued the early scoring in the second, as freshman right fielder
Sean Krueckeberg's sac fly and Peltz's RBI single made it a 5-0 game. Then, in the fourth, junior second baseman
Gavin Dobbels hit his first homer of the season, a two-run shot, and Krueckeberg's solo shot in the fifth, his team-leading fifth of the spring, pushed the AU advantage to 8-0.
Game 2 was scoreless until the top of the sixth, when junior shortstop
Collin Overholt's sac fly gave AU the lead. Freshman center fielder
Carter Weaver and senior first baseman
Cam Scott came up with back-to-back RBI doubles for a 3-0 Eagle advantage.
All three runs came with two outs.
Cedarville got on the board in the bottom of the sixth on a bases-loaded walk, then tied the game on the next play following an Eagle error. The Yellow Jackets scored the eventual game-winning run later in the sixth on another AU error.
…AND THE REST OF THE STORY
- Senior right-hander Hunter Allen (4-0, 1.33 earned-run average) struck out double-digit batters once again in the opener, finishing with 11 whiffs in five innings, and allowing one hit, no runs and three walks.
- Senior center fielder Cam Miller was 3-for-3, adding a double, stolen base and run scored. Krueckeberg, Peltz and Dobbels each drove in two runs.
- In Game 2, senior righty Chase Carter (3-1) took the relief loss after two-thirds of an inning, a walk, a hit batter and two unearned runs allowed.
- Weaver was 2-for-3 with a double, RBI and run scored.
UP NEXT
The series finale at noon on Saturday (March 29).
