Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Wayne State University Athletics

-
Taylor Carrow
Rhett Roeser went 3-for-5 in the nightcap with two RBI on a game-tying two-run double in the top of the eighth.
4
Wayne St. (Mich.) WSU 34-12
13
Winner Rollins RC 32-12
Wayne St. (Mich.) WSU
34-12
4
Final
13
Rollins RC
32-12
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Wayne St. (Mich.) WSU 0 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 4 7 2
Rollins RC 3 0 3 1 0 1 5 0 X 13 10 2

W: Coby Vallee (5-0) L: Nash, Gavin (4-4)

6
Winner Wayne St. (Mich.) WSU 35-12
5
Rollins RC 32-13
Winner
Wayne St. (Mich.) WSU
35-12
6
Final
5
Rollins RC
32-13
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 R H E
Wayne St. (Mich.) WSU 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 2 6 8 0
Rollins RC 0 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 0 1 5 11 2

W: Nazelli, Gabe (4-1) L: Aj Seymour (1-1) S: Saputo, Jack (3)

Game Recap: Baseball | | Cooper Weidenthaler, Assistant Director for Media Relations

Baseball Drops Suspended Game at Rollins Before Thrilling 6-5 Victory in Series Finale

Wayne State took a 6-4 lead in the top of the 10th inning in game two before holding on in the home half.

WINTER PARK, Fla. -- The 14th-ranked Wayne State University baseball squad (35-12 overall) played an unconventional doubleheader at Rollins (32-13 overall) to not only conclude the weekend series with the Tars, but also to finish the regular season on Sunday afternoon at Alfond Stadium.  Game one, which started on Saturday (first four innings) and ended on Sunday (final five innings), saw Rollins take a 13-4 win.  Game two, a contest originally set for Saturday as well, saw the Green and Gold rally from a 3-0 deficit for a 6-5 win in 10 innings.

WSU officially posts a 35-12 mark in the regular season, which includes a 17-7 conference ledger.  That is good enough for the No. 2 seed in the upcoming GLIAC Tournament that starts on Thursday from UWM Park in Utica, Mich.  Wayne State will square off with No. 5 seed Parkside to begin its postseason journey.

GAME ONE
As stated above, game one between the Warriors and Tars saw the first four-plus innings played on Saturday, with the remainder of the affair completed on Sunday.  Rollins jumped out to a 7-0 lead through four frames before the rain delay, but WSU was just putting on the pressure as the game was suspended.

After four innings with just four baserunners total for the Green and Gold, the fifth frame was a different story.  Wayne State had a four-hit, four-run inning for its only runs of the contest.  It all began with a Caleb Sanders (Eastpointe, Mich. / Detroit Edison Public School Academy [Dayton]) double to lead off, before a Brayden Crowe (Brighton, Mich. / Hartland) single with one out advanced Sanders to third base.

Brady Blakita (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central) was next and he popped up to the shortstop, but it ended up being a sacrifice fly as Sanders crossed home plate.  The next batter, Ty Garza (Grosse Ile, Mich. [Barton College]), provided a double down the left field line to plate Crowe.  A pair of walks then followed before the lightning and rain hit Alfond Stadium and paused the proceedings.

The first batter on Sunday was pinch hitter Alfredo Velazquez (Livonia, Mich. / Brother Rice [Michigan]), and he came through in the bases loaded, two-out situation with a two-run single to left that scored both Owen Tuccinardi (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Skyline) and Drew Hill (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North).  However, WSU was unable to add on with the tying run at the dish.

Rollins would go on to score one run in the bottom of the sixth and five in the seventh to pull away once again from the Green and Gold.

Gavin Nash (Howell, Mich. / Hartland) started and pitched the first inning (1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO), before a quartet of Warrior relievers entered the ballgame.  They, in order, were Will DeMasse (Macomb, Mich. / Dakota), TJ McAllister (St. Clair Shores, Mich. / South Lake), Macio Miller (Kimball, Mich. / Marysville [Jackson C.C.]), and Carson Tehan (LaSalle, Ont. / Sandwich S.S.).  DeMasse saw the most work at 2.2 innings with two hits, four runs (two earned runs), three walks, and three punchouts, while McAllister tossed 1.1 IP with one hit and one earned run.  Miller surrendered three hits and five runs in 1.1 IP, before Tehan pitched the final 1.2 innings of scoreless baseball.

GAME TWO
Just one run was plated in the opening five innings of the nightcap, and that was from an RBI double by RC's Michael Furry in the bottom of the third.  However, it was not for lack of effort as both teams, especially Rollins, threatened but could not score any more in that span.  In the bottom of the first, Crowe threw out Connor O'Sullivan trying to steal third base to quell that threat.  Later, starting pitcher Keegan Pulford-Thorpe (Aurora, Ont. / Newmarket [Central Florida / Georgia Highlands College]) worked around Tars' doubles in the second, fourth, and fifth frames.  Pulford-Thorpe loaded the bases with none out in that fourth inning and escaped with no damage, as a baserunning mistake by Rollins allowed WSU to turn a 8-3-4 double play for two crucial outs.

RC would ultimately break through once again with two runs in the sixth, but all that work in the early innings to keep Rollins off the board came back to benefit Wayne State in the seventh.  With just one hit through six, Sanders started the frame with a solo HR to break the ice for WSU and make the score 3-1.  It was his fifth home run of 2026.  Rhett Roeser (New Baltimore, Mich. / Warren De La Salle) then singled and was on third base when Garza doubled him home to cut the score to 3-2 Rollins.

The Tars added a run in the home seventh on another RBI double, but Roeser once again made a big difference in the eighth with a game-tying, two-out, two-run double to score Hill and Tuccinardi.

4-4 would remain the score through the ninth and into extra innings, where power would shine again for WSU.  With one out, Tuccinardi cranked a solo home run, his 11th of the season, to give WSU its first lead of the day.  Roeser connected on a short fly ball that ended up dropping for an error on the Rollins right fielder, which also scored Sanders all the way from first base with two outs after he had singled.

The sixth WSU run proved to be a massive insurance run, as Rollins scored once in the home 10th to make it 6-5, but would strand the tying and winning runners in scoring position.

Pulford-Thorpe battled through five strong innings in which he allowed seven hits, three earned runs, three walks, and added three strikeouts.  The unsung hero of game two was Gabe Nazelli (Farmington Hills, Mich. / Detroit Country Day), who made his first relief appearance of 2026.  The graduate student tossed four innings of two hit, one run baseball on just one walk and three strikeouts to earn his fourth win of the campaign.  Joel Mator (Trenton, Mich.) tallied the first out of the 10th, before Jack Saputo (Windsor, Ont. / St. Anne Catholic [Macomb C.C.]) closed the door for his third save of the season.


 
Print Friendly Version