Findlay Flexes on Final Day in Vienna
Vienna, WV – The University of Findlay baseball team rallied on Sunday, March 24 to pick up two wins against Ohio Valley after dropping two games the day before. The Oilers scored a combined 22 runs on the day and improve their record to 8-9 overall with a 3-5 mark in Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) play. Ohio Valley falls to 4-16 on the year with an even 4-4 record in league action.
Game 1 Box Score (W 5-2)
After dropping the first two games of the series, the Oilers had something to prove as they battled the Fighting Scots on the road. With senior Tyler Kennedy on the mound, they did just that.
Findlay got two runners on in the first and had one more on in the second, but were unable to get on the board. In the third inning that changed when freshman Alex Foulks led off the inning with a walk and, after a sac bunt and line out, senior Nic Varda laced a double to left center to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead.
OVU answered with a home run in the bottom of the inning to tie the game, but in the top of the fourth, Alex Foulks delivered with a three-run home run to put Findlay ahead 4-1.
The Scots again scored a single run in the bottom of the fourth but, after two scoreless innings, Findlay added another run in the seventh.
Kennedy got two outs in the seventh before turning the ball over to freshman closer Trey Bame who needed just one pitch to get the final out of the game and pick up his second save of the season.
Findlay finished with five runs on six hits and made one error while OVU had two runs on eight hits and made one error.
Foulks finished the game with one hit in two at-bats, the fourth inning home run. He had three RBI and scored two runs.
Casey Gould was the lone player with two hits in the game. He had a pair of singles and drove in a run while Nic Varda had one hit, and RBI, and walked twice.
Kennedy got the win on the hill as he threw 6.2 innings and allowed just two runs on eight hits. He walked just one and tied a career high with ten strikeouts.
Game 2 Box Score (W 17-1)
In the final contest of the series, the Oilers made sure that the ride back to Findlay was a good one.
In the nine-inning affair, the Oilers scored 17 runs, their biggest offensive output since scoring 18 runs against Ohio Dominican in April of 2013. In that game, the Oilers had 17 hits and were led by Jon Shollenberger ('14) who finished 3-for-4 with three runs scored, three RBI, and was just a double shy of hitting for the cycle.
On Sunday, Findlay jumped ahead 3-0 through three innings with a pair of unearned runs scored in the second and a solo home run in the third off the bat of Nic Varda.
The Oilers added three more runs in the fifth inning, and then came the sixth. In that inning, Findlay scored nine runs on six hits and took advantage of two errors. Austin Rawlins, Casey Gould, Tyler Archambeau, Derrick Herd, and Tyler Burley all had RBIs in the inning that saw 14 players step up to the plate.
Single runs in the eighth and ninth innings added to what was an already insurmountable lead as Findlay would cruise to a 16-run win.
Archambeau finished the game with three hits and score two runs. He also had a career-best four RBI in the win.
Nic Varda also had three hits in the game while scoring three runs and driving in one.
Austin Rawlins, Tyler Burley, Brandon Emery, and Casey Gould all had two hits in thegame. Rawlins scored three runs and drove in three while Gould scored twice and drove in two.
Senior Hunter Weis picked up his second win of the year to improve to 2-0 on the mound. He threw seven innings and gave up just one run on five hits. He struck out eight and did not allow a walk.
Findlay returns to action on Wednesday, March 27 when they head to Tiffin for a double-header starting at 2:00 pm.