Oilers Drop Doubleheader in Florida Opener
Auburndale, Fla. – The University of Findlay baseball team played their first games of their annual trip to the Russ Matt Collegiate Baseball Invitational. The Oilers dropped both games of a doubleheader at the hands of Grand Valley State University on Sunday, March 1. With the losses, Findlay falls to 3-3 on the young season while the Lakers improve to 4-1.
Findlay took a lead in the first game of the day in the second inning, scoring an unearned run on a fielder's choice.
Grand Valley took the lead and control of the game in the bottom of the second inning plating seven runs on four hits and two errors. Of those seven runs, two were earned.
The Oilers scored a single run in the fifth but allowed two more in the bottom of the fifth as the Lakers went on to secure a six-run victory.
Ryan Mohr took the loss on the hill as he threw 1.2 innings and allowed seven runs, two earned, on four hits. He walked two and struck out three.
Findlay mustered five hits in the game. Cam Farrar, Ryan Johnson, and Alex Foulks all had doubles for the Oilers. Tyler Burley had a hit and two runs scored.
The offense for the Orange and Black struck with too little, too late in the second game of the doubleheader.
Grand Valley State scored single runs in the first and second innings of the game and later, added three in the sixth and one in the seventh for their six runs.
The Lakers starter, Ben Thomas, pitched a gem to earn his first win of the year. Thomas held the Oilers hitless for five-and-two-thirds before Findlay's Casey Gould drove a ball through the right side of the infield to breakup the no-hit bid.
Ryan Johnson drove a hanging breaking ball over the wall in the seventh inning to plate the Oilers only runs of the game.
Ryan O'Malley had a double while Cam Farrar recorded a single to round out the Oilers four hits.
Anthony Kyle took the loss on the hill to fall to 1-1. He threw 5.1 innings and allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits. He walked three and struck out five.
The Oilers will take on Rockhurst tomorrow, March 2, for a doubleheader. Those games will start at 3:00 pm.
