Great Midwest Baseball Tournament Preview
Live Video Stream (G-MAC Network)
Findlay, Ohio – For the first time in ten years, the University of Findlay baseball team will be participating in the postseason. The Oilers qualified as the fourth seed in the North Division of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) and will take on the G-MAC South champion, Kentucky Wesleyan in the first round.
This marks the first time since 2008 that Findlay has played in a conference tournament and just the third time in the NCAA DII era of the program. In 2008 and 2005, as a member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), Findlay entered those tournaments as the fourth and final seed. In both of those appearances, Findlay worked their way from the consolation bracket into the GLIAC Championship game. In both years, the Oilers lost to Grand Valley State in the championship game.
No. 17 Ohio Dominican is the top seeded team from the G-MAC North and faces Walsh who earned the second wild card spot. ODU had the league's best conference winning percentage, compiling an 18-7 record in their first year in the G-MAC (.720).
Last season's G-MAC Regular Season Champion, Trevecca Nazarene, enters the tournamnet as the second seed out of the south while last year's tournanent champ, Kentucky Wesleyan, is the South Division Champion.
The Oilers have been led offensively by the play of freshman Ethan St. Clair who is hitting .323 on the season with seven doubles, three triples, and two home runs. He has seven hits in his previous four games and has 13 multi-hit games. St. Clair, who hit a grand slam in his first college at-bat on Mar. 4 against West Virginia Wesleyan, has patrolled centerfield for Findlay all season and has just one error in 80 chances.
Junior Derrick Herd, who was a Valley Baseball League All-Star selection this past summer as a member of the Woodstock River Bandits in Woodstock, Va., leads the team with 49 hits and has a batting average of .320. April began as a slow month for Herd as he hit just .143 through the first 11 games of the month, but since Apri 26, he has been on a tear, hitting .556 in his previous six games, including posting a season-high four hits in a game against Malone on April 29.
On the hill, the Oilers will throw out one of the most successful pitchers in recent history at Findlay. Senior Colin Gossard has a record of 5-1 this season and has racked up 64 strikeouts in 56 innings of work. The Lima, Ohio native has 208 career stirkeouts, tied for third all-time at Findlay. He is chasing 2017 graduate Austin Rodesky (215 Ks) for second and 1990 graduate Greg Otto (220 Ks) for the top spot. In 2016, Gossard was named GLIAC Pitcher of the Week and National Pitcher of the Week after a career-high 12 Ks against Ashland in his final start of the season.
Out of the bullpen, Findlay closer Josh Robinson has closed the door time and again. He has 21 appearances this season, one shy of the school record of 22 set by Alex Williams in 2015. This season, Robinson has an ERA of 3.27 and has 29 Ks in 22 innings of work and has recorded a G-MAC record 11 saves. Those 11 saves are tied for the Findlay school record set by Josh Barney in 2008.