OWENSBORO, Ky. – The Lake Erie College baseball team traveled to Owensboro, Kentucky to take on the Kentucky Wesleyan College Panthers for their first conference series of the season. The series was originally scheduled to be the Storm's home opener but was moved due to weather. Despite losing the first three games of the series, the Lake Erie bats would end hot and they would leave Owensboro with one win against the Panthers.


GAME 1 - 3/19

Freshman Jake Vasil got the start on the mound for the Storm for his second career start and it was a very productive one. Vasil would go seven innings and surrender two earned runs on eight hits while striking out five.

Kentucky Wesleyan would strike first in the top of the second but the Storm would respond in the bottom of the third with a Graham Solak single to left field to score Zimba Cadiz who reached earlier on a double down the left field line.

The Panthers would notch out two more runs in the game, one in the fourth and one in the sixth with time running out for the Storm.

In the bottom of the ninth, Lake Erie would start to mount a comeback. After a groundout to start the inning, Josue Cruz would get hit by a pitch and consequently send up Ty Sowers as the tying run. Sowers would smoke a double down the left-field line holding up Cruz at third and giving the Storm some hope. Unfortunately, the next two batters would strike out and the Storm would finish with a 3-1 loss for their first conference game of the 2023 season.


GAME 2 - 3/19

The second game of the Sunday double-header was not as kind to Lake Erie. After giving up a run in the top of the first, starting pitcher Robert Helt had a tough second inning. He would give up four runs and the Panthers would stretch their lead to 5-0.

Helt settled down in his remaining three innings of work but the Storm offense would struggle in the game, scoring no runs on just three hits.

By the end, the Panthers would finish with a 7-0 victory and take both games on the first day.


GAME 3 - 3/20

Lake Erie came into day two looking to put yesterday behind them and finish up by splitting the series.

The Panthers posted two runs in the top of the second and took the early lead but the Storm would respond in the bottom of the third with two of their own.

Cadiz started the scoring with a single to right center. The order would turn around and Israel Espinosa advanced Cadiz to third with a single of his own, setting up runners on the corners with just one out. During the next at-bat, Espinosa stole second and the throw from the Panther's catcher would sail into center field, scoring Cadiz and cutting the Kentucky Wesleyan lead in half. After Solak was hit by a pitch and stole second right after, Sebastian Silva tied things up with a single to center field. Cadiz would score but Solak would be thrown out at home trying to give his team the lead.

In the bottom of the fifth, Cadiz, Espinosa, and Solak were at it again. Cadiz would knock a single up the middle and Espinosa would advance him with a single of his own. Both runners would then pull off a double steal and Cadiz would score the next at-bat on a ground-out by Solak.

Unfortunately, after the Storm took out starting pitcher Zach Saffell, the bullpen was be unable to hold the Panthers the next two innings and they went on to score nine unanswered, ruining Lake Erie's hope at a series split.


GAME 4 - 3/20

Looking to avoid a series sweep, the Storm sent up Dominic Poltrone to start game two of the day. Poltrone delivered as he produced his best outing of the season, going seven complete innings, giving up five hits while striking out nine batters with his only blemish coming in the sixth inning when he surrendered a three-run home run.

Lake Erie got on the board early with a Graham Solak two-run home run and later in the fourth scored again on a RBI single by Israel Espinosa. In the fifth inning, the Storm blew things apart as they erupted for 5 runs and capitalized on good base running, timely hits, and Panther errors.

Espinosa would bring in two more runs in the seventh with a long blast over the tall center field fence which would extend the lead to 10-3.

After Poltrone exited the game, the bullpen struggled and the Panthers tacked on six runs in the top of the ninth. That would end up not being enough and the Storm would finish the game with an 11-9 victory.


Espinosa had himself a great series, going 7-16 (.438) with three RBI's, a double, home run, and two stolen bases.


The Storm will be back in action on Thursday, March 23 on the road to face Notre Dame College at 2:00 PM