The Wayne State baseball team lost two of three games in a Thursday-Friday set with Regis University in Denver, Colo.
On Thursday, the Rangers claimed a 4-2 win, while the Wildcats came back to take the second game, 5-2.
In the opener, the Rangers limited the Wildcats to just four hits in the contest. They scored twice in the second and added two in the fifth to take the lead for good.
Wayne State left the bases loaded in the fifth before scoring in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Travis Miller, scoring Andrew Hanson, who reached when he was hit by a pitch.
Wayne State added their second run in the seventh, thanks to a Brendan Madsen RBI single that scored Jake Lorenzini, who reached on a double.
Madsen was 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Wildcats’ four-hit effort. Bryce Bisenius added a single. Aidan Breedlove took the loss after 5 1/3 innings of work.
In the nightcap, Hunter Wienhoff held the Rangers hitless oveer 4 2/3 innings and the Wildcats held off a late rally to salvage the split.
Wayne State got on the board in the fourth with a two-run homer by Miller, scoring Bisenius, who reached on a one-out double.
The Wildcats added single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to extend the lead. Madsen doubled Garrett Graveline home in the fifth, Miller scored on a Colin Chick single in the sixth and Hanson singled CJ Neumann home after he doubled.
Wienhoff pitched six shutout innings before Regis got to him in the seventh, but Lawson Zenner and Charles Hasty closed out the Rangers’ comeback effort to give Wayne State the win.
On Friday, the Wildcats rallied from a 6-0 deficit, but Regis scored in the bottom of the ninth to come away with a 7-6 game. A second game Friday was cancelled due to time restrictions.
Regis led 6-0 after three innings before the Wildcats came back to tie the game.
A three-run fourth inning got the Wildcats on the board, thanks to a Kyle Thompson two-run single that scored Bisenius and Miller. Thompson later came home on a wild pitch.
In the fifth, Wayne State plated two more runs. Jake Lemar scored on a throwing error, and Alex Logelin came home on a Bisenius single to make it 6-5.
The Wildcats tied the game in the sixth on a Neumann single that scored Hanson. Regis had the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth, but freshman reliever got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam to send the game to extra innings. He turned the trick again in the eighth as Regis loaded the bases with two outs before Staebell got a fly out to end the inning.
Regis came through in the ninth, using three hits and scoring the game-winning run to post the 7-6 win.
Logelin was 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored and Bisenius and Miller each went 2-for-5 to highlight an 11-hit effort. Hasty was one of five Wildcat pitchers used in the game and took the loss.
Wayne State, 6-3, starts their spring break this week and will play four games in Tucson, Ariz., with the first game coming on Tuesday at 4 p.m. against Concordia-St. Paul.
