Wheeling W. Va. – The Wheeling University Baseball (20-16, 9-11) was back home for their third mid-week matchup in April on Wednesday as they hosted IUP. The offense was once again clicking on all cylinders as the Cardinals put up 18 runs in what was an 18-8 victory over the Crimson Hawks. Five different Cardinals finished with multi-RBI games and nine pitchers helped the team pick up their 20th win of the season.
Both teams were held off the board in the first inning before IUP got things going in a five-run top of the second inning. Wheeling would respond in the bottom of the first when Nic Ancelet started things with a walk and stole second. An error allowed Ancelet to move to third before he came home on a wild pitch to make it a 5-1 game. IUP got that run back in the top of the third, but the Cardinals continued to inch closer in the bottom half of the inning.
Braden Killens would draw a one-out walk but a fielder's choice replaced him with
Jacob Murray on first and two outs.
Lucas Rawlins stepped in and doubled to move runners to second and third and Ancelet followed with a two-run double that made it a 6-3 game.
Garth Charlton completed the inning with an RBI single and after three innings of was a 6-4 Crimson Hawk lead.
The Cardinals held IUP off the board in the top of the fourth, and the Cardinals kept rolling in the bottom half. With one out,
Christian Boyles got the inning started with a solo home run to cut IUP's lead to 6-5. Three straight walks to
Spencer Craig, Killens and Murray would load the bases with one away for
Lucas Rawlins. He would come through with a twp-RBI single that gave Wheeling their first lead of the day at 7-6. After the second out of the inning, Charlton stepped up and brought home another run with an RBI single that made it an 8-6 game. With the lead in hand,
Kenny Jinks came on for the fifth. S held IUP off the board while Wheeling sent four batters to the plate in the bottom of the fifth and after five innings it was 8-6 Cardinals.
It didn't take long for the Cardinals to get back in the board in the bottom of the sixth as
Braden Killens hit the second solo home run to start the inning and make it a 9-6 game. Murray would be hit by a pitch and
Lucas Rawlins would reach on an error to move runners to second and third. A wild pitch brought home Murray to make it a 10-6 Cardinal lead. Even after Head Coach
Ryan Lewicki subbed out almost the entire lineup the offense just kept coming.
Thomas Kegerreis would walk to start the bottom of the seventh, followed by
Aidan Willard being hit by a pitch and
Pete Toula drew a walk to load the bases. Killens would hit an RBI single to move the runners station to station and a Murray bases loaded walk added two more runs and made it a 12-6 lead.
A strikeout would serve as the first out of the inning before
Kobe Hill reached on a Fielder's Choice that brought home Toula and made it 13-6.
Anthony May would hit a sacrifice fly in his first at-bat of the night and
Scott Kondroik added another with an RBI single and Wheeling stretched their lead to 15-5. Kegerreis would walk for the second time in the inning and Willard would draw a bases loaded walk to bring in the final run and make it 16-6. IUP scored their first runs since the third when they added two in the top of the eighth but Wheeling got them back in the bottom half. Killens and Murray drew back-to-back walks to start the inning. And Rawlins picked up his third RBI of the day with a single to make it 17-8. The final run of the day came in on a Fielder's Choice by Kondroik that allowed the Cardinals to pick up the 18-8 win.
The Cardinal's pitching staff got a lot of work on the day, with nine different pitchers combining in the effort.
Jared Naida was the only one who lasted more than an inning in the game, allowing two runs in two hits.
Hayden Wilcox got the start and threw a scoreless first inning before
Malkolm Barrett came on for the second and allowed four runs, two earned, without retiring a batter. After Naida's two innings,
Johendry Colmenares threw a scoreless fourth and
Kenny Jinks added a scoreless fifth inning to get his sixth win of the season.
Dominic Parker-McDonald and
Sonny Peluchette each threw a scoreless inning before
Josh Wessler came on and was charged with two runs in the eighth.
Hunter Dyck finished out the day with a 1-2-3 ninth to end the day on the mound.
Braden Killens led the offense and continued his monster week going 3-3 with four runs scored and two RBI in the game. He now has 13 RBI over his last six games and leads the team with 39 RBI this season.
Lucas Rawlins led the team with three RBI and went 3-6 at the plate with a double as he continues his roll. Nic Ancelet,
Garth Charlton, a s
Scott Kondroik rounded out the multi-RBI efforts with each finishing with two RBI.
The Wheeling University Baseball team will be back in action on Friday, April 21st, when they host Fairmont State at 1 PM.
