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 Ryan LaPensee drove in four runs in the first game Saturday against Northwood. |
April 26, 2008
DETROIT - The 27th-ranked Wayne State University baseball team (26-12, 19-2 GLIAC) earned a resounding 18-6 victory over Northwood University (19-20, 6-17 GLIAC) in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday afternoon.
All nine starters had at least one hit and one RBI, while seven posted multiple-hit performances. Matthew Williams (Detroit, Mich./Royal Oak Shrine) was 4-for-5 with two RBI and three runs scored, Ryan LaPensee (LaSalle, Ont./St. Thomas of Villanova) matched his career high of four RBI on a two-hit day, and Drew Churchward (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) and Charlie Dunneback (Lansing, Mich./Grand Ledge) totaled three hits apiece.
Wayne State jumped out to an 18-0 lead through the first four innings, including a nine-run first frame in which the Warriors sent 13 men to the plate and collected 10 hits. LaPensee smacked a pair of two-run doubles in the inning, with RBI singles coming off the bats of Adam Kaminski (Clinton Twp., Mich./Mt. Clemens), Dunneback, Scott Martin (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer), Churchward, and Williams.
Consecutive one-out doubles by Brett Witczak (Hudsonville, Mich.) and Matt Cunningham (Gregory, Mich./Chelsea) started the six-run second inning for Wayne State. Martin tacked on a two-run double, followed by an RBI double by Churchward and an RBI triple by Williams.
Witczak led off the third inning with a solo homer to right, and a two-run single by Dunneback in the fourth accounted for WSU's last two scores.
Starting pitcher Anthony Bass (Trenton, Mich.) surrendered just two hits and struck out seven in four innings of work. Northwood combined for six runs, four of which were unearned, in the next two innings as Daniel Baird (Brampton, Ont./Bramalea) and Tom Olson (Clinton Twp., Mich./Chippewa Valley) finished the game in relief.
NOTES
WSU's 18 runs marks its highest total since scoring 19 against Plymouth State on March 19, 2005 ... the Warriors have scored in double digits nine times this season ... LaPensee's only prior four-RBI game was April 6, 2007 against Findlay ... Kaminski, Churchward, and Williams each stole a base in the first inning ... the swipe was Kaminski's first of the year, while Churchward has 11 and Williams leads the GLIAC with 25.