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 Michael Wiseman went 3-for-4 with three RBI Sunday against Northwood. |
April 27, 2008
DETROIT - The Wayne State baseball team (29-12, 22-2 GLIAC) clinched a berth in the 2008 GLIAC Tournament following a 12-6 victory over Northwood (19-23, 6-20 GLIAC) in the series finale Sunday afternoon.
The 27th-ranked Warriors finished 12-1 on their 13-game homestand and qualified for the postseason for the fourth time in the last five years.
Eight of WSU's nine starters had at least one hit, with Michael Wiseman (White Lake, Mich./Lakeland) leading the Warriors with three hits and three RBI. Matthew Williams (Detroit, Mich./Royal Oak Shrine) reached base four times, going 1-for-1 with three walks, and scored three runs.
Each team committed four errors in the game, with the Timberwolves accumulating all of their errors in the first inning as the Warriors scored six runs to erase an early 4-0 deficit.
A bases-loaded single by Wiseman and a Northwood error plated all three runners, while a sacrifice fly by Matt Cunningham (Gregory, Mich./Chelsea) tied the game at four apiece. Two more runs on a single by Charlie Dunneback (Lansing, Mich./Grand Ledge), aided by another NU miscue, gave Wayne State a 6-4 lead.
The Timberwolves drew four walks in the top of the fourth inning and scored on a wild pitch to pull within one, but three consecutive RBI singles in the bottom of the inning by Ryan LaPensee (LaSalle, Ont./St. Thomas of Villanova), Wiseman, and Adam Kaminski (Clinton Twp., Mich./Mt. Clemens) put the home team ahead by four.
Scott Martin's (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) RBI single in the fifth made it a 10-5 game and, after Northwood scored an unearned run in the sixth, the Warriors tacked on two more with a sacrifice fly by LaPensee and a fielder's choice off the bat of Cunningham.
Brett Shankin (Washington, Mich./Romeo), the first of four relievers used by Wayne State, struck out three over two hitless innings to earn his second win of the season.
The Warriors, who are in first place with six conference games remaining, heads to Saginaw Valley State for a doubleheader Wednesday at 2:00 before closing the regular season at home next weekend with four games against Ashland.
NOTES
Despite a 61-34 record all-time against Northwood, Wayne State had not swept a four-game series versus the Timberwolves since 2002 ... the Warriors outscored the Timberwolves, 63-17, in the four games this weekend ... WSU scored 24 of its 63 runs (38 percent) in the first inning ... Brett Witczak (Hudsonville, Mich.) has a 10-game hitting streak, tied for the second-longest of the season by a WSU player ... Wiseman is batting .500 (15-30) with 10 RBI and 14 runs scored during his current nine-game hitting streak ... Kaminski and Williams each have seven-game hitting streaks ... Williams also stole his 27th base of the season, which leads the GLIAC and is the sixth-highest single-season total in school history.