EASTLAKE, Ohio – The Lake Erie College baseball team competed this week in their final home series of the season. They played host to the Ashland University Eagles on Thursday, April 27th and Saturday, April 29th. The Storm would take one game from the Eagles but ultimately drop the series, 3-1.
GAME 1
Having played in two games the day before including a 15-inning victory over Walsh, the Storm took to the field to compete in two more conference contests.
Lake Erie got on the board first in the second with a sacrifice fly by Trevor Smentek and scored the same way the next inning on a sacrifice fly by Jacob Mote.
The Eagles tied things up in the fourth and took the lead in the fifth. Lake Erie didn't let that last long however as they regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning on a three-run home run by Graham Solak, giving themselves a 5-3 lead.
Unfortunately, the Eagles would respond with three runs in the sixth and the seventh to hand the Storm a 9-5 loss in the first game.
Solak had himself a day, going 3-for-4 and finishing just a double shy of the cycle.
WP: M. Hall (1-0)
LP: J. Poppy (1-4)
SV: M. Leishman (1)
GAME 2
Following Lake Erie's senior day celebration prior to the game, senior Zach Saffell got the start on the mound for the Storm. He struggled with command but pitched the entire seven-inning game for the final home start of his career.
The Storm bats struggled as well in game two, only managing one hit which came courtesy of Solak in the first inning. Despite the lone hit, Lake Erie put together a series of walks, stolen bases, and Ashland errors to get two runs on the board in the sixth inning.
Ashland struck in the first, second, and fourth innings and finished the game with a 6-2 victory.
WP: B. Beaver (6-1)
LP: Z. Saffell (1-3)
GAME 3
The Storm bats came were much improved in game three, as they totaled 12 hits. Mote got Lake Erie on the board first in the bottom half of the first inning on a single to right field, scoring Zimba Cadiz. Cadiz would then bring in another run the next inning but not after Ashland put up three runs in the top half of the second.
Both teams traded a run over the next three innings but the Eagles broke things open in the top of the seventh inning and took a 7-3 lead in the final inning.
Israel Espinosa started the bottom of the seventh with a single through the left side and next at-bat Solak crushed a homer to deep center field, trimming the deficit to just two runs with still no outs.
Jacob Mote followed things up with a double to right field and two batters later, Mark Ross brought him home. Ross advanced to second on a wild pitch, suddenly putting the tying run in scoring position with two outs. Zach Hoskins came through in the clutch and drove home Ross, tying up the game and sending it into extra innings.
Landon Vance shut down the Eagles in the top of the eighth and in the bottom half, Cadiz kicked things off with a walk, advanced to second on a single by Espinosa and Solak became the hero with a walk-off RBI single through the left side, giving the Storm the victory and their second walk-off win in the last four games.
Solak once again had a three-hit game, going 3-for-5 with three RBIs.
WP: L. Vance (1-2)
LP: Z. Common (6-2)
GAME 4
With the exciting victory behind them, the Storm looked to take game four and split their second series in a row.
The contest was scoreless through the first two innings but Ashland broke through and scored four in the top of the third. From there, it was an Ashland-controlled game and the lone Storm run came in the fourth on a Jake Vasil sacrifice fly as the Eagles finished with a 12-1 win.
WP: C. Scott (6-3)
LP: W. Cornett (0-3)
Lake Erie will be back in action on May 4th and May 5th as they travel to Northwood to take on the Timberwolves on the road.
