#6 Ashland Drops Saturday Doubleheader To Warriors

#6 Ashland Drops Saturday Doubleheader To Warriors

Wayne State scored took both ends of a doubleheader on Saturday (April 13) afternoon, beating the Ashland University baseball team 3-1 and 16-3 at Harwell Field in Detroit.

The Eagles (27-7, 10-4 GLIAC), ranked No. 6 in the latest NCBWA poll, have dropped the first three games of the series to the Warriors (26-8, 10-5 GLIAC), who now sit just a half-game behind Ashland for the GLIAC lead.

On Saturday, the Eagles never led and were down 1-0 after the first inning of Game 1 on an RBI single by Hunter DeLanoy.

The Eagles got a solid outing from junior right-hander Chance Hitchcock, who tossed a six-inning complete game, allowing three runs on six hits with four walks and 11 strikeouts. He suffered the defeat and fell to 3-1 on the season.

Hunter Brown (6-0) stayed unbeaten on the year by going six innings and allowing just one run on four hits with four walks and 10 strikeouts.

The Eagles cut Wayne State's 2-0 lead in half with three singles in the fourth inning, the last an RBI rip by senior Sam Hawley, who plated sophomore Dillan Smith. Ashland would wind up stranding a pair in the inning and nine in the game.

Wayne State would get the run back in the bottom half before blanking the Eagles in the final two innings.

In Game 2, the Warriors hit two two-run homers in the first inning on their way to the 16-3 win.

The Eagles scored on junior Jason Swope's RBI groundout in the second, but Wayne state scored seven more times in the second with two homers, including the second by Justin Kelly.

Hawley homered in the third and sophomore Micah Allen's RBI single in the seventh provided Ashland's other runs.

Sophomore Perry Bewley (2-3) took the loss for the Eagles while Josh Nelson (2-1) was credited with the win for Wayne State.

Allen and Smith each had two hits for the Eagles.

Ashland will look to salvage the final game of the series on Sunday (April 14) at noon.

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