The Wayne State baseball team extended its win streak to nine games Sunday with a 5-2 and 14-8 sweep over Northern State at the Chapman Complex.
The games were moved from Aberdeen, S.D., to Wayne due to snow and field conditions.
The opener saw Wayne State (18-8, 9-3 NSIC) score all five runs in the second inning while pitchers Aidan Breedlove and Andrew Staebell combined to hold Northern State to just six hits.
Andrew Hanson opened the second inning with a solo homer. CJ Neumann’s RBI double brought home Peyton Barnes for a 2-0 lead. Jake Lemar singled and later scored when Brendan Madsen reached on an error, Kyle Thompson’s RBI single scored Neumann and Madsen scored on a wild pitch for a 5-0 Wildcat lead.
Breedlove took a shutout into the fifth inning when the Wolves came up with two hits while using a Wayne State error to score two runs. Staebell shut down the Wolves the rest of the way, allowing just two hits over the final 2 1/3 innings to earn the save.
Wayne State had seven hits in the win, led by Thompson going 2-for-4 with an RBI. Hanson had a solo homer with Neumann adding a double.
The second game saw Thompson and Bryce Bisenius combine to go 6-for-10 at the plate with eight RBI’s as Wayne State completed the sweep of the Wolves.
Wayne State held an 8-1 lead after six innings, but Northern State roughed up the Wildcat bullpen for seven runs late in the game to make it a contest.
With Wayne State leading 1-0 entering the third, Thompson connected for a two-run homer. Northern scored a run in the fourth, but Wayne State used an RBI triple from Hanson, an RBI double by Thompson and an RBI single from Bisenius to take a 6-1 lead.
Wayne State added two more runs in the sixth, thanks to a two-run double by Bisenius to make it 8-1, and Travis Miller’s solo homer in the top of the seventh made it a 9-1 advantage.
Hunter Wienhoff contributed six innings of work, charged with just one run on two hits to go with seven strikeouts, but Northern State came up with two runs in the seventh on one hit and one Wildcat error and added four more runs in the eighth.
Wayne State closed their scoring with four runs in the eighth, highlighted by a two-run pinch hit homer from Brandon Barker, and were able to complete the Sunday sweep of Northern State.
Bisenius led Wayne State’s 14-hit attack, going 4-for-6 with a double and four RBI. Thompson was 2-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored with a homer, his fifth of the season. Madsen finished 3-for-5 with three runs scored while Barker and Miller each homered.
Wienhoff improved to 6-1 with the win, working six impressive innings allowing just one run on two hits.
The two teams will conclude their three-game NSIC series with a nine-inning game scheduled for Monday at 12 p.m. at the Chapman Complex.
