BOX SCORES:  GAME 3  |  GAME 4  |  PHOTO GALLERY

DETROIT - The Wayne State University baseball team (30-17, 21-13 GLIAC) swept a wild doubleheader Sunday against Lake Erie College on the final (26-24, 22-14 GLIAC) day of the regular season.  Wayne State won the Senior Day opener in extra innings, 5-4, and came away with a 12-11 triumph in the series finale.

Kyle Vesey (Brighton, Mich.) scored the winning run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the eighth inning in the third game of the weekend.  The teams combined for 19 runs in the fifth inning of game four, a slugfest which ended on a play at home plate.

With the victories, the Warriors surpassed the Storm for second place in the conference, securing the No. 2 seed in the GLIAC Tournament which starts Wednesday at V.A. Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe, Ohio.


GAME 3: WAYNE STATE 5, LAKE ERIE 4 (8 INN.)

A game which was tied 4-4 after four innings morphed into a pitchers' duel between relievers Justin Sylvester (Macomb, Mich./Dakota) and Tyler Minnich.  Sylvester, who came on in the fourth inning, allowed just one single in the fifth and retired the last 10 batters he faced.  Minnich (0-1) relieved Jimmie Shaw in Wayne State's four-run second inning and finished the game.

While the Warriors managed just five hits and left 11 runners on base, they drew eight walks and capitalized on four Lake Erie errors.

Lake Erie struck first in the opening inning as Matt Toth hit a one-out double to left and scored on a base hit by Brayan Cacique.

Shaw walked the bases loaded to start the bottom of the second before being lifted for Minnich.  Kenny Davis (Wyoming, Mich./Lee) drove in Chris Gebara (Troy, Mich.) with a sacrifice fly, and both Kasey Koster (Portage, Mich./Central) and Eric Cunningham (LaSalle, Ont./St. Thomas of Villanova) scored on grounders.  Andrew Ciennik (Waterford, Mich./Mott) tacked on an RBI single to give WSU a 4-1 lead.

Cacique made it 4-2 with a sacrifice fly in the third.  Three hits in the fourth led to a run and ended Kyle Zimmerman's (Frankfort, Mich.) day on the mound.  The Storm scored another run aided by a WSU error, but Sylvester induced a ground ball to leave two runners stranded.

The Warriors loaded the bases with no outs in the sixth but failed to score.  In the eighth, however, Vesey smacked a one-out triple to right center and scored on a wild pitch by Minnich.

Sylvester (1-0) fanned four in 4.1 innings of work.  Neither he nor Zimmerman walked a batter.


GAME 4: WAYNE STATE 12, LAKE ERIE 11

All 11 runs scored by the Storm were unearned, including the nine runs Lake Erie posted to take a 10-2 lead in the top of the fifth.  Wayne State immediately responded, however, with 10 runs in the bottom half of the fifth.

After an error and a walk put two aboard in the seventh inning, Billy Hurley (Mississauga, Ont./St. Aloysius Gonzaga) retired the next two batters.  A base hit by Reid Rizzo, however, brought home Aaron Lindgren from third.  Sean Mathews tried to score from second, but Koster's throw to Brad Guenther (Ann Arbor, Mich./Saline) was in time to record the third out and provide Hurley with his school-record tying 10th save of the season.

Koster had three hits in the game to lead the Warriors offensively.  Four Warriors – Vesey, Guenther, Alex Trojan (Fenton, Mich./Hartland) and Davis – had two hits apiece.

Wayne State left the bases loaded in the third inning as the game remained scoreless.  A sacrifice fly by Garrett Emling snapped the tie in the fourth.

A two-run single by Davis, the third hit of the fourth inning by Wayne State, gave the home team a 2-1 lead.

Lake Erie sent 14 hitters to the plate in its nine-run fifth inning.  The Storm loaded the bases with two outs, but the first of two Wayne State errors in the inning allowed the first run to score and opened the floodgates.  Pat Kilway and Rizzo each drove in two runs.

Walks to Zimmerman and Trojan sandwiched a one-out double by Guenther, the first of eight hits in the bottom of the fifth inning for the Warriors as they also sent 14 men to bat.  Andrew Ciennik hit a two-run double, while base hits by Koster, Davis, Vesey and Guenther each drove in a run.  Trojan's two-run single gave Wayne State a 12-10 lead, producing the eventual game-winning run.

Brock Bates (Delta, Ohio/Evergreen), one of four pitchers used by Wayne State, picked up his first career victory.  Mike Morgan (1-3) took the loss as he allowed Trojan's decisive single in the fifth.


NOTES

Hurley tied Jon Venuto for the single-season (10) and career (18) saves records … six of the eight meetings between WSU and Lake Erie have been decided by one run … Vesey finished the series 7-for-14 with five runs scored … he extended his hitting streak to a season-long 10 games … Sylvester matched his career-long 4.1 innings pitched … the 15-member senior class was honored before Sunday's doubleheader.