Institute, W. Va. – After opening their Mountain East Conference (MEC) schedule on Friday, the Wheeling University Baseball team (6-8, 1-3) made the 20-minute drive to Institute, West Virginia to continue conference play. The Cardinals would take on West Virginia State in doubleheader action and scored a combined 19 runs in a doubleheader split. The Cardinals would score a season-high 15 runs in a 15-2 win in game one and came back to fall 5-4 in extra innings in the second game.
Game One Wheeling 15, West Virginia State 2
The Cardinal offense would come to play in game one, after both teams were held off the board in the first inning. Wheeling's biggest inning of the day would come in the top of the second when they put 10 runs on the board. Nic Ancelet and Spencer Craig began the inning with back-to-back singles, followed by a Nicholas Schultz walk that loaded the bases. A base is loaded walk to Christian Boyles would bring home the first run of the game and Cade Lacy added a two RBI double to push Wheeling's lead to 3-0. Jalen Raysor added an RBI single of his own and it became a 4-0 Wheeling lead with runners on first and third and still nobody out. Brett Johnson would be walked to load the bases once again and Dylan Maltby would be hit by a pitch to bring home the Cardinals fifth run of the inning.
A wild pitch would bring home Raysor for the 6th Cardinal run of the inning, and Keaton Ference would be hit by a pitch to load the bases once again. After the first out of the game was recorded, Craig withdrawal walk to give Wheeling a 7-0 lead, and a two out Boyles would make it 8-0 in favor of the Cardinals. Lacy would step to the plate with the bases loaded for the second time in the inning and once again came through. He hit his second to RBI double of the inning, bringing home Ancelet and Craig, as Wheeling completed the 10 run inning. That was more than enough support for starter Wes Landis, who would come back out throwing strikes for the Cardinals. He put up a 1-2-3 bottom of the second and the Cardinals were right back on the board in the top of the third.
Brett Johnson would walk and steal second, and Ference added a walk to put two on. With two outs, Spencer Craig stepped up and drew a walk before Schultz was hit by a pitch to make it an 11-0 Cardinal advantage. The Cardinals would put up three more in the top of the fourth, with Johnson starting things with a double that scored Lacy. Ference and Craig each added RBI singles in the inning and after three and a half innings the Cardinals were staked to a 14-0 lead. The lone run allowed by Landis would be given up on the bottom of the fifth, and a Michael Norton homer in the top of the seventh would account for the 15th Cardinal run. Landis would pick up his first win of the season, going 6.0 innings, allowing two runs on three hits, while walking three and striking out four.
Leading the way for the Cardinals was Cade Lacy, who finished a career-best 3-4 with a pair of doubles and four RBI on the day. All four of his runs batted in came in that 10-run top of the second inning, where he hit both of his doubles and added all four RBI. Spencer Craig finished right behind him, going 2-2 with a pair of RBI, a pair of runs scored, and a walk. Brett Johnson and Nic Ancelet would put together the final multi-hit days, with Johnson adding an RBI, while Michael Norton rounded out the leaderboard with a home run in the top of the seventh. The Cardinals would look for their second doubleheader sweep of the year heading into game two.
Game Two: West Virginia State 5, Wheeling 4
After striking for early offense in game one, the Cardinals were back at it in game two getting on the board in the top of the first. Brett Johnson would start the inning with a single and Dylan Maltby singled right behind him to put runners on first and second with one out. Two batters later, a passed ball would move runners to second and third with one out and a groundout from Nicolas Ancelet would bring home Johnson to give Wheeling a 1-0 lead. Spencer Craig would draw a walk to put runners on first and third before Nicholas Schulz drove in the Cardinal's second run of the inning with an RBI single to make it a 2-0 Wheeling lead. That would be the advantage for starting pitcher Jaden Wilcox and he would run with it through the early portion of the game.
Wilcox would set the Yellow Jackets down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first, starting what would be a strong outing for the right hander. Wilcox would throw 5.0 innings, allowing just three hits while walking three and striking out four. After allowing the two early runs, West Virginia State's Brian Lingenfelter would settle in and matched Wilcox inning for inning. The Cardinals would hold that 2-0 lead into the top of the seventh, when they would add on to their lead. Keaton Ference would single to lead-off the inning and a groundout by Ancelet would move him to scoring position. Craig would bring Schultz home with an RBI single and the Cardinals would hold a 3-0 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh.
Sebastian Khan stayed on the mound for his second inning of work and, after retiring the first two batters, an error allowed the first Yellow Jacket base runner of the inning. West Virginia State would then tack on three runs with two outs and tied the game at 3-3 to send things to extra innings. In the top of the eighth inning, The Cardinals would get things started with a one-out single from Johnson and he got into scoring position by stealing second. A groundout would advance the runner to third and Ancelet would single to left field to give Wheeling a 4-3 lead. However, West Virginia State came back in the bottom of the eighth and scored two runs to pick up a 5-4 walk-off win.
Leading the offense for the Cardinals was Nicholas Schultz, who finished 3-4 with an RBI in the effort. Spencer Craig would add a 2-3 effort with a walk and a pair of singles while adding an RBI on the day. Nicholas Ancelet and Keaton Ference would round out the offense, each going 2-5 with an RBI in the effort.
The Wheeling University Baseball team returns to action on Tuesday, March 18th, when they hit the road to face California University of Pennsylvania a with first pitch at 1 PM.
