DETROIT -- The Wayne State University baseball team (20-21 overall, 8-7 GLIAC) will return home to Harwell Field and face league-leading/21st-ranked Davenport (30-11 overall, 15-1 GLIAC) in a four-game series this Friday through Sunday. Friday's first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m., Saturday's doubleheader will commence at 1 p.m. and Sunday's finale begins at 1 p.m.
Sensational Skippers
This matchup features two of the most prolific head coaches in the country, a pair of 500-game winners (1,011 combined) and two two-time GLIAC Coach of the Year honorees. Wayne State's 17th-year head coach
Ryan Kelley, the league's Coach of the Year in 2010 and 2023, comes in with an overall record of 504-325-1 for a .608 winning percentage. On the other side, Davenport's 14th-year man Kevin Tidey, the conference's Coach of the Year in 2021 and 2022, has amassed an overall mark of 507-244 for a .675 winning percentage.
Scouting Davenport
Starting with pitching, Davenport (4.17 team ERA) boasts the most likely GLIAC Pitcher of the Year candidate in redshirt senior Keegan Batka. Batka has pitched 65 and one-third innings, nearly 15 more than the next-closest Panther, with a 2.48 ERA to show for it. That 2.48 clip ranks 36th in all of Division II, but Batka has accounted for more frames of work than all but five of the players ranked ahead of him. The Grand Rapids native has a 7-1 record, 1.03 WHIP, two complete games, one shutout, 72 strikeouts, only 15 walks, and a batting average against of .215.
Batka is one of three DU pitchers with at least five victories along with Austin VanderMarkt (5-0) and Adam Berghorst (5-2), both of which are also redshirt seniors. VanderMarkt has a 3.86 ERA in 46.2 innings pitched with 32 punchouts, 14 free passes and .253 opponent batting average. Berghorst enters this series with a 4.44 ERA in 50.2 frames with 32 strikeouts, 19 walks and .263 batting average against. The fourth member of the starting rotation has been redshirt junior James Geshel and his 4-2 ledger. Geshel has accounted for a 4.89 ERA in 46 innings with 45 punchouts, 18 free passes and an opponent batting average of .274.
Another pitcher to keep an eye on will be junior Brandon Skorupski, who leads the team in appearances with 13. Through 30 innings, Skorupski presents an ERA of 2.40 and WHIP of just 0.83. The Wixom native has registered a 3-2 record, two saves, 22 strikeouts, only six walks, and batting average against of just .176. He's one of five players with multiple saves along with redshirt senior Conor Gausselin (3), junior Colton Blankstrom, graduate student Mason Hill, and redshirt sophomore Ian Dixon.
Switching gears to hitting, Davenport holds a team batting average of .303. That mark includes eight everyday players with a clip close to or above .300, each of which is a junior or senior besides one. Those eight are Xander Reisbig (.340 average), Justin Johnson (.326), Logan Todd (.319), Cody Hultink (.315), Sam Clay (.311), Chase Kemp (.304), Dylan Pawenski (.294), and Coltrane Rubner (.292).
Last Time Out - Baseball Erases Seven-Run Deficit to Defeat Findlay and Win Season Series
Wayne State (20-21 overall) fell behind Findlay (20-20 overall) 7-0 on Tuesday afternoon before rattling off 11 runs in the final four innings to triumph and win the season series, two games to one.
While Wayne State scored eight runs in the top of the sixth, 13 batters came to the plate and Findlay utilized three different pitchers. Those eight runs came in on just three separate plays. They included a three-run inside-the-park home run by
Aidan Arbogast (Livonia, Mich. / Livonia Stevenson [Mid-Michigan C.C. / Kellogg C.C. / Eastern Michigan]), his third (first since March 8), two-run single from
Caleb Sanders (Eastpointe, Mich. / Detroit Edison Public School Academy [Dayton]) and three-run double by
Drew Hill (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North).
Two frames later in the eighth,
Brady Blakita (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central) brought in Sanders with a groundout to the shortstop and Arbogast singled in
Mason McGuire (Lyon Twp., Mich. / Brighton [Mott CC]).
Arbogast (3-for-5) registered his second three-hit game of the season while Sanders (2-for-5) and Hill (2-for-2) also finished with multiple base knocks. Sanders and Hill were two of three Warriors to score multiple times along with McGuire.
On the mound, starter
Bennett Hitzelberger (Richmond, Mich.) lasted just a third of an inning. Hitzelberger gave up three runs, two earned, on two hits. First out of the bullpen,
TJ McAllister (St. Clair Shores, Mich. / South Lake) finished the first frame and pitched the second as well. McAllister surrendered four runs, none of which were earned, on four hits with one walk and three strikeouts.
The four WSU pitchers that followed that pair were sensational over the course of the contest's final seven innings. Starting with
Will DeMasse (Macomb, Mich. / Dakota), his two scoreless frames, two hits, no free passes and two punchouts.
Miles Jamieson (Grosse Pointe, Mich. / Grosse Pointe South [Mid Michigan / Davidson]) picked up his first victory in the Green and Gold thanks to three shutout innings. Jamieson allowed just one hit with one strikeout and no walks.
Coy Plummer (New Hudson, Mich. / South Lyon) handled the eighth with a pair of punchouts before
Ethan Getting (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Portage Northern [Purdue Northwest]) slammed the door in the ninth while striking out the side. Getting has conceded zero earned runs in all but four of his 15 appearances this spring.
