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Wayne State University Athletics

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Taylor Carrow
Drew Hill went deep twice for the second time this season giving him 11 home runs on the year.
9
Purdue Northwest PNW 15-28
12
Winner Wayne St. (Mich.) WSU 36-13
Purdue Northwest PNW
15-28
9
Final
12
Wayne St. (Mich.) WSU
36-13
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Purdue Northwest PNW 2 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 9 11 2
Wayne St. (Mich.) WSU 2 0 2 7 0 1 0 0 X 12 11 1

W: Nazelli, Gabe (5-1) L: Ben Cash (0-7) S: Cardinale, Rocco (7)

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

Baseball Stays Alive in GLIAC Tournament, Ousts Purdue Northwest 12-9

Wayne State scored seven unearned runs in the fourth, which proved to be the difference.

UTICA, Mich. -- The second-seeded Wayne State University baseball squad (36-13 overall) was up against elimination on Friday afternoon in day two of the 2026 GLIAC Tournament at UWM Field in Utica, Mich., against six-seeded Purdue Northwest (15-28 overall).  The Warriors managed to extend their stay at the tournament for at least one extra day as they downed the Pride, 12-9, in an offensive slugfest.  Wayne State will next take on the loser of third-seeded Davenport against five-seeded Parkside at 3 p.m. on Saturday for another elimination game.

As stated above, offense was on display all morning and into the afternoon at UWM Field.  A grand total of seven home runs were hit, with three coming off PNW bats and four by WSU players.  The two sides combined for 21 runs on 22 hits with half of those hits going for extra bases.

Purdue Northwest opened the scoring right away with a two-run homer by Denham Kozy in the top of the first, but Wayne State would answer after just three batters in the bottom of the frame.  With Brady Blakita (Canton, Mich. / Detroit Catholic Central) on first after a walk, Drew Hill would bash a two-run home run of his own to quickly tie the score at 2-2.

PNW tacked on two more in the top of the second on a run-scoring single and RBI groundout to re-gain a 4-2 edge, while adding on another run in the top of the third to lead 5-2.  In the bottom of the third, Hill struck again with a solo HR to right field for his second of the contest and, combined with his first home run, his 10th and 11th round-trippers of 2026.  Now down 5-3, it was Owen Tuccinardi's (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Skyline) turn to go yard as he went back-to-back with Hill to cut the deficit to one at 5-4.  Tuccinardi, who also went deep in Thursday's loss to Parkside, tied the single-season record of 13 set by Paul LaMantia in 2010.

Another run would cross home for the Pride in the top of the fourth, before chaos erupted in the bottom of that inning.  A pitching change for Purdue Northwest with the bases loaded and one out set up a strikeout for the second casualty of the frame.  That was when everything turned upside down as a soft grounder by Hill led to a three-run throwing error by the second baseman to give WSU a 7-6 lead - its first lead of the GLIAC Tournament.

Tuccinardi followed the error with a high pop-up that dropped into no-man's land for a double that plated Hill and made the score 8-6 WSU.  A walk by Rhett Roeser (New Baltimore, Mich. / Warren De La Salle) then set up the next big blow, which was a three-run blast courtesy of Ty Garza (Grosse Ile, Mich. [Barton College]), his fifth of the campaign.  When it was all said and done, what should have been no runs for Wayne State in the fourth ended with seven unearned runs charged to PNW pitching and an 11-6 advantage.

With single runs in the top of the fifth and sixth by the Pride, which also was their fifth and sixth straight innings of scoring at least a run,  they were able to cut the Warrior lead to 11-8.  However, a big insurance run came in the bottom of the sixth for the Green and Gold when Tony Hatzigeorgiou (Oxford, Mich.) singled home Roeser for the 12th and final run of the ballgame.

Just one run was plated in the final two-and-a-half frames, which came from Purdue Northwest to get the contest to its 12-9 final score.

Gavin Nash (Howell, Mich. / Hartland) made the start and went 1.1 innings with three hits allowed, four runs (three earned runs), and one walk. 

Following Nash was Gabe Nazelli (Farmington Hills, Mich. / Detroit Country Day), who picked up the win to improve to 5-1 on the season.  Nazelli may have allowed four earned runs in 4.2 IP, but held PNW to no more than one run in each of his innings to limit the damage each time. 

Macio Miller (Kimball, Mich. / Marysville [Jackson C.C.]) was next and he provided 1.1 frames of one-run relief, before Rocco Cardinale (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich. / Grosse Pointe North) handled the final five outs with no baserunners to earn his seventh save of 2026.

Cardinale's seven saves are the most by a Warrior pitcher in a season since Tyler Tompson and Taylor Horn had 10 and nine, respectively, during the 2017 campaign.


 
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