DETROIT -- The 14th-ranked Wayne State University baseball team (34-9 overall, 17-6 GLIAC) kept rolling on Saturday afternoon at Harwell Field for a doubleheader sweep of Purdue Northwest (14-22 overall, 6-13 GLIAC), 3-0 and 4-2. Riding an eight-game winning streak, the Warriors will look to complete the four-game sweep over the Pride on Sunday with the first pitch scheduled for noon.
GAME ONE
Making his first home start in over two years,
Evan Langlois (Brownstown, Mich. / Woodhaven) teamed up with
Philip Miller (Flat Rock, Mich. / Woodhaven [Schoolcraft C.C. / Tusculum]) for Wayne State's second no-hitter of the season and third in as many years. The high school teammates' effort marked the Warriors' first combined no-hitter since 2019.
Still working his way back from an injury, Langlois handled his two innings pitched with ease and did so with just 20 pitches. The redshirt sophomore faced the minimum six batters with no walks allowed and two strikeouts. Then in five frames of relief, Miller was sensational while using only 53 pitches. The senior hit one batter, but punched out six others, and improved to 5-0 with the pitching victory.
Offensively, WSU's first two runs came in during the second inning as
Tony Hatzigeorgiou (Oxford, Mich.) singled in
Bennett Hitzelberger (Richmond, Mich.) and
Brayden Crowe (Brighton, Mich. / Hartland) doubled in
Caleb Sanders (Eastpointe, Mich. / Detroit Edison Public School Academy [Dayton]).
Then two frames later, the home team turned to the long ball for some insurance as Sanders belted a solo home run over the green monster in left field for his fourth blast of the season.
GAME TWO
Only a single run was scored through the nightcap's first five innings and it was by Wayne State in the second when Sanders doubled in
Owen Tuccinardi (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Skyline).
After Purdue Northwest made it a 1-1 affair in the sixth, the Warriors punched right back with a three spot in the seventh.
That half inning, Sanders was at it again with an RBI single to center that pushed across Tuccinardi. The Warriors then pulled away a bit as pinch-hitter
Nick Sandiha, Jr. (West Bloomfield, Mich. / Brother Rice [Macomb C.C.]) plated Sanders with a groundout to the shortstop and
Alfredo Velazquez (Livonia, Mich. / Brother Rice [Michigan]) doubled in Hatzigeorgiou.
The Pride cut the deficit to two (4-2) in the ninth with runners on first and second before that runner at first, Brett Bounds was picked off at first by Crowe.
Keegan Pulford-Thorpe (Aurora, Ont. / Newmarket [Central Florida / Georgia Highlands College]) made the start with seven innings pitched on 99 pitches and was exceptional. Pulford-Thorpe surrendered just one earned run for the second-straight outing to go with four hits, two free passes and seven strikeouts. The left-hander's ERA is now down below five at 4.58 after rising above six at 6.17 back on April 3.
First out of the bullpen,
Jack Saputo (Windsor, Ont. / St. Anne Catholic [Macomb C.C.]) faced nine batters and retired five of them on 38 pitches. Saputo gave up one unearned run on three hits with one walk and four punchouts.
Rocco Cardinale (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North), who threw just one pitch, then garnered his sixth save of the spring following the pickoff of Bounds at first base.
