Shawnee State opened their home season with victories over Baldwin-Wallace College and Walsh University. The Bears improve to 7-5 on the season.
Shawnee State opened the day with a 6-3 victory over Baldwin-Wallace. Senior Austin Dunfee (Pomeroy, OH) highlighted the Bears game as he worked 7.0 innings on the mound, allowing only three hits while not giving up a run. He walked three while striking out four Yellow Jackets in the contest.
The Bears jumped out to an early lead posting two runs in the first inning. Shawnee's first two batters, freshman Cody Spires (Lancaster, OH) and junior Adam Wamsley (Wheelersburg, OH) reached on Yellow Jacket errors. Spires then scored the Bears first run on a wild pitch by David Redovian. Senior Cody Morrison (Spring, TX) then knocked in Wamsley to give Shawnee the 2-0 advantage.
Freshman Xander Uxley (Pickerington, OH) led off the second inning with a base hit through the right side and advanced to second on a balk. Senior Quentin Everman (Galloway, OH) hit a RBI single through the right side and senior Ryan Burnett (Bellevue, WA) followed with a base hit to right. Wamsley plated two batters with a single to left field to extend the Bears lead to 5-0 after two.
In the fifth, junior Colin Keim (Clinton, OH) doubled to right and then pinch runner freshman Matt Jones (Greenup, KY) scored on an error by Baldwin-Wallace.
Shawnee State held the Yellow Jackets scoreless through eight innings. Baldwin-Wallace started the eighth inning with singles by Jay Yost and Eric Murphy. An error by Cody Spires allowed Yost to score.
A single by Anthony Lognhitano sent Murphy home. Jordan Barnett crossed the plate on a wild pitch Bears' freshman Ryan Hackwork (Pedro, OH), but it wasn't enough as the Yellow Jackets would fall to Shawnee State 6-3.
Quentin Everman (Galloway, OH) went 2-for-3 with one run scsored and an RBI while Adam Wamsley (Wheelersburg, OH) went 1-for-4 with two RBI's in the game
Dunfee picked up the win to improve to 3-2 on the season. Senior Jordan Williams (Uniontown, OH) picked up the save.
In the night cap, the Bears held off Walsh 6-4 for a victory. Shawnee struck early scoring three runs in the first. Wamsley put the Bears on the board as he scored on an error by Walsh second baseman Kylar King. Senior designated hitter AJ Gomez (Spring, TX) hit a single through the right side, plating senior Justin Marrero (Reynoldsburg, OH) and junior Aaron Suydam (Painesville, OH) and giving the Bears the 3-0 advantage after one.
Shawnee State added to their lead in the second. Spires reached on a base hit and scored on a triple by Morrison. Morrison then scored on a single through the middle by Keim. Courtesy runner Suydam plated the Bears' third run of the inning as a rare double steal by the Bears.
Walsh got on the board in the fifth as Jake Palidar scored on a base hit by Forest Boggs. The Cavaliers posted two more runs in the sixth to cut the Bears' lead in half. Trevor Smith led off the inning with a double and Andy DePeel followed with a base hit to center. Kyler King drove in Smith with a single and DePeel scored on a passed ball by the Bears.
In the final inning, the Cavaliers' Tim Stinson scored, but a pop up ended Walsh's comeback handing the Bears' the 6-4 win.
Senior Alex Taku (Santa Cruz, CA) improved his record to 3-1 on the mound as he allowed three runs on 10 hits while striking out one in 5.1 innings in the win. Williams worked the final 1.2 holding off the Cavaliers, allowing one run on one hit, one walk with one strike out. Cody Morrison went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored and A.J. Gomez went 1-for-3 with two RBI's.
On Sunday, Walsh and Baldwin-Wallace face off at 11:00 a.m. at Branch Rickey Park. At 2:00 p.m. Shawnee State will take on Walsh.
