EASTLAKE, OHIO – A sunny afternoon turned gloomy
both in the sky and for the Lake Erie College baseball team
Saturday (April 3) against visiting Ohio Dominican University at
Classic Park. The Storm rallied in its last at-bat to force extra
innings in game one before a ninth-inning home run lifted the
Panthers to a 6-4 win. Lake Erie then saw a late lead slip away
through the raindrops with a six-run sixth inning for ODU in a 7-3
win in game two.
The two wins gave Ohio Dominican
(9-18) a three-game series sweep and extended the Storm's
(9-14) losing streak to a season-high six.
In the opener, John Bowron
homered leading off the ninth to break a 4-4 tie. The Panthers
added another run and Kyle Gore set the Storm down in order in the
bottom of the inning for his second save in as many games against
Lake Erie.
The Panthers looked to have the
game one earlier when they scored three times in the top of the
seventh, finally breaking through against LEC ace Adam
Beach (Vermillion, Ohio/Vermillion), who had held ODU to
just one run through the first six innings.
But in similar fashion, the
Storm responded with three of their own in the bottom of the
seventh, getting to ODU's top hurler, Andy Onak.
Freshman Zach Mosbarger (Bellefontaine,
Ohio/Bellefontaine) singled in two runs and sophomore
Matt Toth (Lorain, Ohio/Admiral King) beat out a
grounder to plate the tying run.
But after a scoreless eighth,
Bowron took reliever Logan Nordquist (Alliance,
Ohio/Alliance) over the wall in left field – just
edging the glove of left fielder Brandon James (Mentor,
Ohio/Mentor) – for the lead.
Onak (1-3) picked up the win,
going eight innings. He allowed 11 hits and four runs, three
earned, with two walks and three strikeouts. Beach lasted 6
1/3 innings, allowing four runs on 13 hits with no walks and five
strikeouts.
Lake Erie scored an unearned run
in the fourth on a throwing error by Onak. The Panthers tied
the game at 1-1 an inning later on a single by John Brown.
Mosbarger, junior Nick
Lovick (Mentor, Ohio/Mentor) and freshman Cody
Blood (Conneaut, Ohio/Conneaut) each had two hits for the
Storm. Eian Banks had four hits and Evan Shaw and J.T.
Feldkamp each had three for the Panthers.
When the Panthers pushed a run
across in the first inning of game two, the Storm responded with
three in the home half of the inning. Mosbarger led off the
game with a triple just past a diving Bowron and scored on a
squeeze play executed by Toth. After a Lovick single, James
blasted a two-run shot- his fifth home run of the season- to the
hill in left center.
After the first, sophomore
Michael Backes (Hubbard, Ohio/Hubbard) breezed
through the next four innings unscathed. He allowed just two hits
in innings two though five, but was lifted after a walk and hit
batter to open the sixth.
Sophomore Mike Morgan
(Indian Lake, Ohio/Russells Point) came on and surrendered
a leadoff single to Cale Wilburn to score a run and a balk and wild
pitch allowed the Panthers to tie it up. Tyler Zaidel singled later
in the inning with two outs to plate Wilburn for a 4-3 lead.
After another single, Felix
Brown tripled off the glove of a diving James down the left field
line and Bowron doubled to make it 7-3.
Alex Borgan earned the win for
the Panthers, scattering seven hits through six-plus innings.
He got into trouble just once after James' home run,
but escaped a bases-loaded jam in the sixth. He walked three on the
day and struck out one.
Brown had three more hits in the
nightcap and Wilburn had a pair. James was the only Lake Erie
player with two or more hits.
The Storm opens a four-day,
seven-game road trip Tuesday, April 6, at Mansfield University
(Pa.).
-LEC-
