DETROIT -- Fresh off a four-game sweep of brand new GLIAC member Roosevelt, the Wayne State University baseball team (16-15 overall) will take a brief break from league play to face Findlay (15-15 overall) for the second of three times this season. The Oilers defeated the Warriors in WSU's home opener on Tuesday, April 1 by a score of 4-3.
On The Rise
While Wayne State was going 4-1 last week, both the offense and pitching were taking care of business. Starting at the plate, the Warriors hit .342 as a team with seven batters boasting a batting average of at least .333. The four players at the top included
Caleb Sanders (Eastpointe, Mich. / Detroit Edison Public School Academy [Dayton]) at .600,
Drew Hill (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North) at .412,
Bennett Hitzelberger (Richmond, Mich.) at .375, and
Mason McGuire (Lyon Twp., Mich. / Brighton [Mott CC]) at .350.
Then came a trio of student-athletes at .333 apiece in
Jacoby Dale (Roseville, Mich. [Spring Arbor/Henry Ford CC]),
Owen Tuccinardi (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Skyline) and
Brady Blakita (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central).
On the mound, WSU turned in a team ERA of 2.30 in 43 frames of work.
Ethan Getting (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Portage Northern [Purdue Northwest]),
Gabe Nazelli (Farmington Hills, Mich. / Detroit Country Day),
Braylon Laroo (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central), and
Carson Tehan (LaSalle, Ont. / Sandwich S.S.) each picked up a pitching victory. That win for Tehan was the first of his collegiate career.
Outside of those four,
Will DeMasse (Macomb, Mich. / Dakota) was brilliant despite a no decision in six and one-third innings and
Nick Baker (Brighton, Mich. [Lansing CC]) gave up just one earned run in 4.2 frames spread across two appearances.
Scouting Findlay
Findlay is coached by fourth-year leader Matt Palm, who is 93-90 in those three-plus seasons. Prior to Findlay, Palm spent 23 years at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, Ohio where he coached for 15 seasons. Palm led the Student Prince, who were consistently ranked among the country's top 25, to a record of 459-209-2 (.685 winning percentage). They won five Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) regular-season championships, four OAC tournament titles and made six NCAA regional appearances, including a trip to the NCAA DII World Series in 2010.
This season, Palm's Oilers are hitting .249 with a team ERA of 6.19. Individually, starting on the offensive side, three everyday players are above the .300 mark including Casey Maruniak (.346), Luke Senften (.316) and Keelan Daniel (.315). Maruniak also leads the way in runs scored (24), home runs (7), RBI (27), total bases (62), and stolen bases (28-of-29). Senften has notched seven doubles, four players have one triple apiece and Keelan has walked 25 times with 10 hit-by-pitches.
On the mound, UF's best pitcher has been Camdon Tuttle with a 0.57 ERA through 15 and two-thirds innings. Tuttle is one of three Oilers with a sub-4.00 ERA along with JJ Harman (0.00 ERA, 5.0 IP) and Sabastian Stevens (2.08 ERA, 13.0 IP). Colin Becker has a team-best four victories (4-2) while Ethan Mohr is on top of the strikeouts category with 38.
Previous Meeting
Neither team got on the scoreboard until the bottom of the fifth when
Mason McGuire (Lyon Twp., Mich. / Brighton [Mott CC]) singled in
Caleb Sanders (Eastpointe, Mich. / Detroit Edison Public School Academy [Dayton]) with a base knock to the shortstop.
Findlay proceeded to tally two runs in the sixth and another in the seventh to make it a two-run game.
In the bottom of the seventh, McGuire brought in
Ty Garza (Grosse Ile, Mich. [Barton College]) on a groundout to the shortstop and
Owen Tuccinardi (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Skyline) forced in
Brady Blakita (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central) thanks to a sacrifice fly to to right center.
Following the Oilers' half of the ninth, the Warriors made things interesting with just three outs to play with. With only one of those outs recorded, the bases were loaded. However,
Tony Hatzigeorgiou (Oxford, Mich.) struck out swinging and
Drew Hill (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North) grounded out to the second baseman to end it.
On the mound, five WSU pitchers combined to give up four runs, all of which were unearned. Those five arms included
Braylon Laroo (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central),
Macio Miller (Kimball, Mich. / Marysville [Jackson CC]),
Coy Plummer (New Hudson, Mich. / South Lyon),
Carson Tehan (LaSalle, Ont. / Sandwich S.S.), and
Ethan Getting (Kalamazoo, Mich. / Portage Northern [Purdue Northwest]).
Laroo and Miller tossed three scoreless innings and two scoreless, respectively, while Getting was saddled with the loss to fall to 1-2 on the season.
Another Milestone
Wayne State's 17th-year head coach
Ryan Kelley added another chapter to his illustrious career on Sunday following the Warriors' four-game sweep of Roosevelt. The two-time GLIAC Coach of the Year (2010, 2023) reached the 500-win mark for his career and now owns an overall record of 500-319-1 for a .610 winning percentage.
