Late Rally Falls Short | Oilers Drop a Pair to Lake Erie
Findlay, Ohio – The University of Findlay baseball team dropped the final two games of their series with Lake Erie College on Tuesday, April 23 to give the Storm the series sweep. The Oilers now have a record of 11-24 overall and are 5-17 in Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) play while the Storm have climbed their way to the .500 mark at 20-20 overall and 13-11 in the league.
Game 1 Box Score (L 5-4)
The third one-run ball game of the series again ended in favor of Lake Erie as the Oilers fell by a 5-4 final.
Lake Erie got ahead early with single runs in the first and second innings and a pair of runs in the third. Three of those four runs were scored via home run balls.
Trailing 5-2 in the sixth inning, an error by the Storm first baseman put Sam Shelt Palm on first with no outs. Junior Jordan Williams then hit a ball up into the stiff Findlay wind that flew over the wall in right field for his first career home run. That blast cut Lake Erie's lead to just one.
However, four of the last six outs came via the strikeout as the Oilers would drop the opening game of the doubleheader.
Findlay finished with four runs on five hits, made one error, and left six runners on base while the Storm had five runs on 11 hits and made two errors. Five of LEC's hits went for extra bases including three home runs.
Williams finished with a hit, a run scored, and two RBI while senior Derrick Herd had a hit and a run scored.
Senior Tyler Kennedy started on the hill and fell to 1-4 after tossing 5.2 innings and allowing five runs on 11 hits. He struck out four and did not allow a walk.
Game 2 Box Score (L 10-5)
Findlay struggled to get the big hit in the nightcap as the Storm went on to win 10-5 to wrap up the series. The Oilers ended up leaving 16 runners on base over the course of the game, a season high.
With winds still howling out to right, Lake Erie plated four runs through the first five innings to take a 4-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Oilers, which left the bases loaded in the second and left two on in the fourth, got an RBI single from Derrick Herd that scored freshman AJ Clarey, who tripled. Later, with two outs, Jordan Williams hit an infield single with the bases loaded to score another run and cut the Lake Erie lead to 4-2. But, a strike out ended the threat, again with the bases loaded.
The Storm broke the game open with four runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth to take a 10-2 lead with just six outs remaining.
Findlay left the bases loaded in the seventh and scored a single run in the eighth when junior Nick Berry drove in a run on a bases-loaded groundout to short. A pop up and a strikeout would end the threat with two runners left on base.
It was all hands on deck in the bottom of the ninth as the Oilers did anything they could to muster a comeback. Freshman Brayden Carter pinch hit and drew a walk and junior Greg Kanavel also pinch hit and singled, moving Carter to third. A wild pitch scored Carter to cut the score to 10-4.
After a strikeout and fly out, freshman Malik McCorkle pinch hit and drew a walk. Freshman Connor Gerren then pinch hit and picked up his first collegiate hit with an RBI single to center. A strikeout ended the game with two runners left on base.
In the game, Lake Erie scored ten runs on 18 hits, eight of which went for extra bases, and made three errors while the Oilers scored five runs on 13 hits and made one error.
Lefty Hunter Weis fell to 3-3 on the hill this year after throwing 6.2 innings and allowing eight runs, six earned, on 12 hits. He walked one and struck out nine.
AJ Clarey finished the game with three hits and a run scored while Derrick Herd, sophomore Ryan Johnson, and freshman Brandon Emery each had two hits.
Findlay gets no breaks as they head to Tiffin University tomorrow, April 23, to take on the Dragons for their fifth and sixth games in three days.