LINK – ASHLAND UNIVERSITY BASEBALL PAGE
In the next-to-last doubleheader of the 2017 season on Friday (April 28), Ashland University's baseball team earned its first twinbill sweep of the season, 11-3 and 12-2 over Lake Erie at Lake Catholic High School in Mentor, Ohio.
The Eagles improve to 17-29 overall and 9-20 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference thanks to their first three-game winning streak of the spring, while the Storm are 10-32, 3-23.
In the first game on Friday, Ashland turned a 1-0 deficit after four innings into an offensive explosion of 11 runs over the final three innings.
A four-run fifth inning was highlighted by home runs from freshman first baseman Carson Mittermaier (solo) and freshman third baseman Kevin Browne (two-run), the four-run sixth had four run-scoring hits and the Eagles' three-spot in the seventh saw freshman designated hitter Alex Laikos launch a solo round-tripper.
Senior shortstop Brad Hartman was 3-for-4, while Mittermaier, junior left fielder Greg Ludwig and Browne each had two of AU's 13 hits. Senior left-handed pitcher Mike Gentile (5-9) earned the complete-game victory, allowing six hits, three runs and two walks and striking out six.
Friday's nightcap found Ashland starting its offensive attack earlier, posting four runs in the top of the first. Laikos hit another homer, a three-run shot.
The Eagles led 4-2 after four innings, then added a run in the fifth on a steal of home by freshman left fielder Vince Vanata and two in the sixth courtesy of a two-run shot by freshman catcher Logan Stoldt.
The Game 2 scoring ended with Ashland posting five runs in the eighth, highlighted by Vanata's two-run double. Vanata was 4-for-6 with two doubles, two runs scored and two RBIs.
Hartman and Stoldt each had two hits, as Ashland had 13 in the game once more.
Sophomore right-hander Sam Rice (3-7) scattered 10 hits and two runs (one earned) and struck out five in six innings, while junior righty Pat Carlozzi (two innings) and junior lefty Zack Whitehead (one) combined for three innings of scoreless relief.
UP NEXT: The season finale twinbill at Donges Field vs. the Storm on Sunday (April 30) at 1 p.m.
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