The Wayne State College baseball team has wrapped up nonconference play, finishing with a 5-5 record in all nonconference games.
The results from the Wildcats’ nonconference slate moves them to 12-6 overall on the season. They currently sit number one overall in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings with a 7-1 conference record.
Nonconference play opened up with a four game series against the Missouri S&T Miners. Game one on Thursday, March 1 saw the Miners open the scoring with a two-run homerun from catcher Matt Souza. After a couple of scoreless innings, the Wildcats tied the game after scoring a run courtesy of an Alex Calabrese single in the fifth and a Carter Thomas sacrifice fly in the sixth. The very next inning saw the Miners retake the lead off an RBI single that scored two from Carter Bither, who then stole third and was immediately sent home off a Kenneth Sugi triple. The Wildcat bats weren’t able to generate any more offense, as the Miners took game one 5-2.
Game two and game three both followed similar scripts. In both games, the Wildcats jumped out to early 1-0 leads. They did so in the fifth inning in game one and the second inning in game two. Both matchups saw the Miners have four-run sixth innings and both game ended up as Miner victories, 4-1 in game two and 5-3 in game three. The run totals for the Wildcats over these three games were the lowest three-game total this season, and three of the four lowest offensive outputs this season.
With the Miners already winning the series, game four saw the Wildcats’ bats finally wake up, although it didn’t start pretty. S&T opened up a 2-0 lead off a HBP with the bases loaded to score a run in the second and a fielder’s choice let the second run score in the fourth. The Wildcats ended up scoring seven runs in the contest. The fifth innings saw Cade Lynam double to left center to push the first run across. Then, with the bases loaded, Trey Wells cleared the bases off a double down the left field line to make the score 4-2. WSC added insurance runs in the seventh off a Miner error, scoring Chase Douglas, then Kaden Young hit a single to right center field, scoring two runs. The score stayed stagnant through the final two innings, leading to a 7-2 win.
The Wildcat then headed south to Florida for the Matt Russ Invitational, where they matchup up with an NCAA Tournament qualifier last year in the Ashland Eagles. The Wildcat bats were flying through the first two innings, scoring two in the first and five in the second off a flurry of singles and some errors from the Eagles. WSC did give up four in the first inning, but after two held a 7-4 lead. Ashland added a run in the fifth to close the gap before exploding in the sixth inning, scoring six runs, including capitalizing off of two fielding errors from the Wildcats. The comeback effort fell short from WSC, as the Wildcats only scored one run in the top of the ninth, leading to an 11-8 win for the Ashland Eagles.
The next four games saw the Wildcats outscore opponents 43-19 en route to winning all four. They easily handled Davis & Elkins College 17-7 and swept Holy Family University in a two game doubleheader. The closest out of the four games came in the second game of the four game win streak against the Thomas More Saints. Each team scored four runs in the fourth before the Saints took the lead in the fifth off an RBI single. The Wildcats couldn’t generate much offense after the fourth, but plated runs in the sixth off a Braden Cannon triple and in the seventh off a Thomas single to help pull out a 6-5 win.
The Wildcats are back in action in NSIC play against the University of Mary Marauders on Thursday, March 21 and Friday, March 22 at the Pete Chapman Baseball Complex on the campus of WSC. Both dates will provide doubleheaders, with the first game starting at 12 p.m. and the second starting at 2 p.m. on both days.
