Walk in the Park | Oilers Take Advantage of 25 Free Bases in Doubleheader Drubbing of Mercyhurst
Findlay, Ohio – The University of Findlay baseball team made it six consecutive wins with two more victories on Tuesday, April 11 against Mercyhurst University. The Oilers won the opener by a score of 11-7 and later won a 17-3 beatdown of the Lakers. With the two victories, Findlay is now 18-14 on the year while Mercyhurst, which was riding an eight-game win streak, falls to 17-8.
The tone was set early on in the day when, in the bottom of the first inning, senior Cam Farrar launched a two-out bomb over the wall in deep center field to put the Oilers ahead 1-0. He now has ten long balls on the year which is one shy of tying his own school record from last season and is second-most in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) thus far this season.
Mercyhurst scored three runs in the second to take the lead, but for the rest of the day, it was all Oilers.
Findlay plated six runs in the third, highlighted by a three-run home run off the bat of freshman Casey Maruniak and an RBI triple by sophomore Austin Adelman.
In the bottom of the fifth, already leading 8-3, junior Andrew Micale went deep to right center for his third home run of the season.
Mercyhurst would threaten late, scoring three runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh to make it 11-7, but senior Gavin Bailey ultimately coaxed a pop up on the infield for the final out of the game.
The nightcap was not much of a contest as Mercyhurst's pitching struggled to find the zone for the entirety of the game.
After a scoreless first inning, the Lakers did take a 2-0 lead with a two-run home run, but then the onslaught begane.
In the bottom of the second, Findlay took advantage of six walks and a hit batter to score six runs on just two hits. One of those runs came on one of the more exciting plays in baseball when senior Aiden Lao stole home to score the fourth run of the inning.
The third inning saw more of the same as the Oilers went on to score eight runs in the frame, four of which came on a grand slam home run off the bat of freshman Gavyn Smith, his first career home run. That blast to center field put Findlay ahead 14-3 and served as the knockout blow.
On the day, Findlay scored 28 runs on 17 hits. Many of the runs cam courtesy of free bases by the Lakers who would walk a total of 25 batters in the doubleheader, 17 of which came in game two. Those 17 walks are the most issued to the Oilers in a single game in the NCAA era of the program.
Freshman Ethan Mohr earned the win in the first game of the day as he started and went five innings, allowing three runs, two earned, on four hits. He walked three and struck out four.
The pitcher of record in the second contest was senior Logan Bragg who improved to 4-1 after throwing 1.2 innings of relief. He did not allow a hit or a walk and struck out three batters.
Offensively, Farrar was the big bat for the Oilers as he picked up five hits on the day including a 4-for-4 effort in Game 1. He scored five runs and had five RBI, as well.
Maruniak also had a good day at the plate as he finished 2-for-3 with a double and a home run. He also walked five times while picking up five RBI and three runs scored.
Senior Cole Kwiatkowski and senior Aiden Lao each had two hits and three runs scored on the day. Kwiatkowski walked three times while Lao walked twice.
Senior Nate Brooks had three hits and three RBI to go along with a pair of walks and two runs scored.
Findlay will be back on the diamond for an important G-MAC South Division matchup with Ohio Dominican this weekend. That four-game set will begin on Saturday, April 15 at 1:00 pm.