CRESTWOOD, Ill. -- The Wayne State University baseball team (30-9 overall, 14-6 GLIAC) has won 30 games in a season for the 10th time under 18th-year head coach Ryan Kelley.  Sunday afternoon, the Warriors capped off their four-game sweep at Roosevelt (9-31 overall, 0-16 GLIAC) thanks to a final score of 12-6 at Ozinga Field.  WSU will host Hillsdale at Harwell Field on Tuesday beginning with a 2 p.m. first pitch.

Wayne State scored four runs before Roosevelt could even notch one of its own, including a two spot in both the second and third innings.

Starting in the second, Alfredo Velazquez (Livonia, Mich. / Brother Rice [Michigan]) brought in Owen Tuccinardi (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Skyline) following a groundout to the first baseman.  The next batter Brayden Crowe (Brighton, Mich. / Hartland) also grounded out, but to the shortstop, and plated Bennett Hitzelberger (Richmond, Mich.).

Then in the third, Drew Hill (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North) and Tuccinardi hit back-to-back home runs, the former to right field and the latter to left center.  Those blasts gave them nine (team leader) and eight, respectively, but Hill wasn't quite done in that department.

The Lakers got one run back in the home half of the third (4-1 score) before Nick Sandiha, Jr. (West Bloomfield, Mich. / Brother Rice [Macomb C.C.]) stretched the margin back to four (5-1) thanks to a solo shot of his own in the top of fourth.  That round tripper gave Sandiha, Jr. two for the spring and his first since March 21 at Parkside.

RU didn't go away just yet, though, scoring once in the fourth and twice in the fifth, closing the gap down to one at 5-4.

Picking back up for WSU in the sixth, Brady Blakita (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central) doubled in Crowe with a knock down the right field line before Hill collected his aforementioned ninth home run of the two-run variety over the wall in right field.  Something to keep an eye on, no Green and Gold slugger has notched more than nine in a single season since 2022 when Hunter DeLanoy racked up 11 of them.  

Anyway, those two scoring plays by the good guys ballooned the lead up to four (8-4), but Roosevelt shrank it back down to two (8-6) in the seventh.

With the score at 8-6 and runners on first and second, Will DeMasse (Macomb, Mich. / Dakota) took over for the first releiver, Macio Miller (Kimball, Mich. / Marysville [Jackson C.C.]), but not before a 15-minute snow delay.

DeMasse was nearly perfect in his outing as Wayne State's offense piled on another run in the eighth and three more in the ninth.  Tuccinardi forced in Blakita with a sacrifice fly to center before Ty Garza (Grosse Ile, Mich. [Barton College]) doubled home three as an added insurance policy.  Those three to touch the dish were Crowe, pinch-hitter Tony Hatzigeorgiou (Oxford, Mich.) and Blakita.

Overall, the top three hitters in WSU's lineup -- Blakita, Garza and Hill -- were a combined 6-for-12 (.500 average) with five runs scored, seven runs driven in, five walks, and no strikeouts.

Before Miller and DeMasse was Gabe Nazelli (Farmington Hills, Mich. / Detroit Country Day), who improved to 3-0 following five innings pitched and 83 pitches.  Nazelli allowed four runs, three earned, on four hits with one walk and five strikeouts.

First out of the bullpen, Miller lasted one and two-thirds frames on 38 pitches.  He gave up two earned runs on two hits with two free passes and one punchout.  Then, collecting his second save of the season after the final two and one-third innings (22 pitches) of work, DeMasse surrendered just three hits with no walks and one strikeout.