DETROIT -- Thirteen years in the making, the Wayne State University baseball program (37-10 overall, 23-6 GLIAC) is back on top of the GLIAC. Saturday at Harwell Field, the Warriors swept a doubleheader against Davenport (26-23 overall, 20-9 GLIAC), the two-time defending league champ, to claim their first regular season conference title since 2010. WSU did so with scores of 3-0 and 7-4 and will look to win the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. in the regular season finale.

This team has tied the Wayne State record for overall victories in a season, which was set last year, and is one away from tying the all-time mark for GLIAC wins accomplished in 1999. The Warriors have also garnered the top seed for the GLIAC Tournament, which will begin on Thursday in Lansing, Mich. at the Lansing Lugnuts' Jackson Field.

GAME ONE RECAP
Wayne State turned to Karter Fitzpatrick (Monroe, Mich. / Carleton Airport) in game one and the senior right-hander shoved. Fitzpatrick (9-1) went the distance for the seventh time this season, on just 79 pitches, while collecting his second shutout of the spring in under an hour and a half. The 6-5 hurler gave up just six hits with one walk and nine strikeouts on 26 batters faced. Fitzpatrick retired the last seven batters that he faced, including five by punchout.

Offensively, Rudy Ramirez (Brighton, Mich. / Brighton) got his team on the board with an RBI single in the first that scored Ryan Foley (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Saline). Three innings later, Chris Tanderys (Livonia, Mich. / Stevenson) brought in Ramirez with a groundout to second and Noah Miller (Macomb, Mich. / University Liggett) made it 3-0 for good with a sacrifice fly to center field scoring Mason McGuire (Lyon Twp., Mich. / Brighton).

GAME TWO RECAP
Seth Marano (Canton, Mich. / Canton) improved to 6-1 with 7.2 innings pitched, four earned runs on 11 hits, no free passes, and nine strikeouts. Marano faced 34 batters and used 109 pitches to do so. In relief, Brennan Cox (Taylor, Mich. / Riverview Gabriel Richard) picked up his fifth save of the season with a perfect inning and a third.

Davenport was on the board first with a run in the first before Wayne State answered with a vengeance. In the home half of that frame, Ramirez put the Warriors ahead, 3-1, with a no-doubt home run over the green monster, his fifth of the season. Tanderys then made it back-to-back jacks with a solo shot, also to left field, his team-leading eighth of 2023.

Once the Panthers made it 4-2 in the second, the Warriors proceeded to tack on a run each in the second, third and fifth innings to go up by five, 7-2. It was then too little, too late for the Panthers who pulled within three, 7-4, in the top of the eighth, but no closer.