Wheeling, W. Va. – Through the first month of the season, the Wheeling University Baseball team (11-16, 7-5) got a taste of MEC South play, taking on all six teams twice. On Sunday, they are back out on the road beginning MEC North Division Play against Fairmont State to start a four-game set. The Cardinals have enjoyed a nice stretch of home games the past couple of weeks, and will be playing their first road contest of April. 

The last time the Cardinals took the field was on Sunday when they hosted West Virginia State in doubleheader action. The Cardinals battled to extra innings in the game, and things were tied 2-2 heading into extra innings. However, the Yellow Jackets put up a four spot on the top of the eighth inning and Wheeling couldn't come back falling 6+2 in eight innings. The strong pitching performance for the Cardinals continued into game two as the score was knotted up at 1-1 after five innings of pay. The Cardinals broke through in the bottom of thee fifth, scoring a run on a dropped third strike, and added a big insurance run courtesy of an RBI single from J.R. Heavilin. The Cardinals were able to salvage a game of the weekend set and went 1-4 against Charleston and West Virginia State.

The key to the weekend's success came in the pitching performances, and they were led by another stellar performance from Hayden Scudder. The left hander had a no-hitter heading into the sixth inning, and ended up allowing three hits and one unearned run while striking out six batters. He hasn't allowed an earned run over his last two starts and has struck out nine batters during that timespan. He and Logan Pillars have been anchors to the Wheeling starting rotation and are showing to be the top guys for the club.

On offense, J.R. Heavilin has continued his recent string of success and is currently the only Cardinal to be hitting over .500 this season. He drove in a big insurance run for his team in the second game against West Virginia State as his team picked up the 3-1 win. Heavilin has driven in nine RBI over the last week of play and has been an anchor in the cleaup spot. Jacob Murray has also been coming up big for his team during that time, smacking his team-leading sixth home run of the season for the Yellow Jackets and providing protection behind Heavilin.

The Cardinals now begin Mountain East Conference (MEC) North Play, with the next five weekends featuring dour game sets with their division opponents. The Cardinals currently sit at 7-5 in conference play and are towards the bottom of the division. However, a lot can change with 20 games remaining against their division opponents. Wheeling is looking to claim the MEC North Division title for the second straight year and have the goal of making the NCAA Tournament after that. They may not have started the way they would have liked, but they can still bounce back and find themselves right where they want to be.
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