DETROIT -- The Wayne State University baseball team (29-9 overall, 13-6 GLIAC) handled its business on Saturday by taking both ends of a doubleheader at Roosevelt (9-30 overall, 0-15 GLIAC), 11-6 and 6-1.  The Warriors will look to cap off their first four-game league sweep of the season on Sunday as first pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. eastern.

GAME ONE
Wayne State scored six of its 11 runs before Roosevelt was even able to get one of its own on the board.

Starting in the top of the first, Owen Tuccinardi (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Skyline) doubled in Brady Blakita (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central) before Alfredo Velazquez (Livonia, Mich. / Brother Rice [Michigan]) singled in both Ty Garza (Grosse Ile, Mich. [Barton College]) and Tuccinardi.

The next three Warrior runs would come via the home run as Blakita hit a solo shot in the second, his third of the season, and Caleb Sanders (Eastpointe, Mich. / Detroit Edison Public School Academy [Dayton]) followed with a two-run blast in the third, also his third, and second in as many games.  That round-tripper also pushed across Bennett Hitzelberger (Richmond, Mich.).

The Lakers had pulled within two (6-4) through five frames before Hitzelberger got one back thanks to a bases-loaded walk in the sixth that forced in Brayden Crowe (Brighton, Mich. / Hartland).

With the margin back to three (7-4), the hosts made it a one-run affair in the home half of the sixth, but their scoring would stop there.

The away team proceeded to tack on four insurance runs in the top half of the seventh, all of which were unearned.

Garza reached on a fielding error by the RU second baseman, which would have been the third out, and allowed Crowe to score again.  Playing with house money at that point, Drew Hill (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North) singled in Blakita before Tuccinardi plated both Garza and Hill with a base knock through the left side.

Blakita (3-for-4), Crowe (3-for-4), Tuccinardi (2-for-4), and Hill (2-for-5) represented the four Warriors with multiple hits.  Blakita tied his personal best for base knocks in a game while the rookie Crowe notched three in a single contest for the first time in his career.

Gavin Nash (Howell, Mich. / Hartland) made the start, improved to 4-3 and lasted four and two-thirds innings on 88 pitches.  Nash gave up four runs, two earned, on nine hits with three walks and four strikeouts.

First in relief, Joel Mator (Trenton, Mich.) retired a pair of batters on 22 pitches.  Mator surrendered two runs, one earned, on two hits with one free pass and one punchout.

Picking up his second save of the spring, Jack Saputo (Windsor, Ont. / St. Anne Catholic [Macomb C.C.]) was superb for the final inning and two-thirds on 26 pitches.  Saputo faced just two batters over the minimum with two hits allowed, no walks and a strikeout.

GAME TWO
Keegan Pulford-Thorpe (Aurora, Ont. / Newmarket [Central Florida / Georgia Highlands College]) was the story of the nightcap as he blazed his way through seven and one-third innings on 108 pitches.  Pulford-Thorpe struck out a career-high 10 batters with two walks while giving up just one earned run on five hits.

Fellow southpaw Philip Miller (Flat Rock, Mich. / Woodhaven [Schoolcraft C.C. / Tusculum]) then closed it out by facing six batters and retiring five of them with 23 pitches.  Miller allowed only one hit with no free passes and one punchout.

Scoring wise, Tuccinardi got the party started in the first with an RBI groundout to the third baseman that scored Garza.  Two innings later, Tuccinardi turned in the same result, but to the shortstop, and Blakita touched the dish.  That same frame, Hitzelberger singled in Garza with a batted ball to right field.

Roosevelt tallied its lone run in the fifth before Wayne State added on a trio more of its own.  In the seventh, Hill tripled in Garza before Tuccinardi was at it again with an RBI double to left field that scored Hill.  Then in the eighth, a Hill single right back up the middle forced in Tony Hatzigeorgiou (Oxford, Mich.).

The four Warriors with multi-hit efforts included Sanders (3-for-4), Hill (3-for-5), Garza (2-for-3), and Tuccinardi (2-for-5).