A series of five spring break games in four days concluded the Wayne State College baseball schedule during the Russ Matt Invitational on Tuesday.
From Northeast Regional Park in Davenport, Florida, Wayne State College competed against Ohio Dominican .
In a high-scoring affair, the Wildcats held off a late rally from Ohio Dominican to win 12-11. WSC finished their time in Florida going 3-2.
Scoring didn’t occur until the second inning starting with Ohio Dominican taking a 2-0 lead followed by senior Taylor Gill from Wayne State College with a three-run homerun scoring senior Chase Douglas and redshirt junior Cam Madsen.
WSC began to build on their lead thanks to back-to-back single runs on a sac-fly by Gill scoring redshirt freshman Connor Hunt in the fourth and a fielder’s choice RBI from junior Gabe Monosmith scoring senior Kaden Young in the fifth to go up 5-2.
The Panthers regained the lead at 6-5 following a four-run top of the sixth.
Wayne State College countered with a seven-run bottom of the seventh to go up 12-6. Junior Casey Prychak first drove in senior Quinn McCafferty on a RBI groundout, Hunt then drove in Young, junior Braden Cannon later scored on a passed ball, sophomore Max Heard added an RBI walk scoring Hunt, Gill drove in two more runs being Douglas and Madsen as McCafferty ended the touchdown inning with a sac-fly scoring Heard.
Ohio Dominican made an effort on their comeback with a four-run top of the eighth and one more run in the ninth.
Final favored Wayne State College winning 12-11 and outhitting Ohio Dominican, 10-9 while committing one error compared to two errors by the Panthers. WSC improved to 5-8 overall and have won back-to-back.
Taylor Gill finished with a three-run homerun, singled, drove in six total runs and scored as Connor Hunt singled twice, drove in a run and scored twice. Other multi-hits came from Cam Madsen and Chase Douglas both with two singles and two runs scored.
Casey Prychak singled and drove in a run; Braden Cannon singled and scored; Max Heard and Quinn McCafferty both accounted for a RBI and run scored; Gabe Monosmith added a RBI as Kaden Young scored twice.
Wayne native and Nebraska transfer redshirt freshman Brooks Kneifl picked up his first win as a Wildcat during an inning and a third of relief striking out one batter. Braden Cannon closed out the final inning and a third earning a save allowing two runs (one earned) off three hits while striking out two batters and hitting one.
Freshman Carson Obrecht was the first of six WSC pitchers used working four innings allowing two earned runs off of two hits while striking out five batters, walking three and hitting one. Wayne native senior Jacob Kneifl followed the next inning striking out two batters. Senior Kadyn Van Hill pitched two-thirds of an inning allowing four earned runs off of three hits while walking and hitting one batter each before Brooks entered. Senior Eli Crnkovich pitched two-thirds of an inning in-between the win and save allowing three earned runs off of one hit while walking two batters.
The Wayne State College baseball team will resume NSIC play with their 1-3 league record and open their home schedule with Bemidji State in town on Thursday and Friday, March 13 – 14 at noon and 2 p.m. each day.
