The wind was blowing out and the scoreboard was blowing up at the Chapman Complex Wednesday as Wayne State and Winona State split a high-scoring NSIC doubleheader.
In the first game, Wayne State scored six runs in the first inning and won a wild won over the Warriors, claiming a 15-11 win.
The Warriors got three in the opening stanza, but the Wildcats batted around in the bottom of the first and used a two-run double by Nick McIntee and a two-run single by Bodie Cooper to take a 6-3 lead. Winona State came back to tie the game in the second and scored two in the third to lead 8-6, but the Wildcats retook the lead on Curtis Bussard’s three-run homer in the bottom of the third.
The two teams continued to pass the lead back and forth, but Wayne State got a two-run single from Bussard and an RBI single from Aaron Krier to put the first game out of reach.
Bussard went 4-for-5 with a homer, double and five RBI’s to highlight a 19-hit effort by the Wildats. McIntee had three hits and Krier and Alex Kreft each had two hits. Spencer Morris got the win in relief and Wayne native Joey Lenihan picked up the save.
In the nightcap, the Warriors blasted eight home runs as part of a 25-hit assault on the Wildcats pitchers to win the second game 21-3. Wayne State avoided the shutout with three runs in the seventh, all coming on Nate Ackerman’s homer to right center that scored Bodie Cooper and Kyle Thompson. Ackerman had two of Wayne State’s nine hits. Spencer Johnson took the loss on the mound.
Wayne State is 8-19 overall and 5-7 in NSIC action. They go on the road this weekend for a four-game series at Northern State, playing doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday at 12 p.m. in Aberdeen, S.D.
