NORTH CANTON, Ohio – The Lake Erie baseball team played their second straight road G-MAC series against the Walsh Cavaliers. Walsh would take game of the series 7-3. Lake Erie would post a strong pitching performance and grind out a 5-4 victory in game two. The Storm offense would pick up the pitching staff to take games three and four by scores of 15-12 and 13-7 to secure a series victory on the road. 
 
Team Records
 
Lake Erie: 13-9 (5-3)
Walsh: 3-16 (1-7) 
 
Game Recaps
 
Game 1:
Walsh- 7
Lake Erie- 3
 
Walsh would come out swinging, putting three runs on three hits in the first inning for an early lead. Lake Erie would answer back in the second tying the score at 3-3 with a three-run home run from Mitchel Szymczak, his third home run of the season. The Cavaliers quickly responded in the bottom half, scoring one run on a fielding error for a 4-3 lead. A solo home run in the third grew the Walsh lead to 5-3. The Cavaliers would get two more insurance runs in the fifth for a 7-3 lead. Lake Erie would threaten in the sixth and seventh getting a runner to third base but would be stranded each inning. Walsh would hold scoreless the rest of the way and take the first game 7-3. 
 
W: Brandon Cahill (1-2) - 6.0 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 2 BBs, 6 Ks
L: Robert Helt (3-2) - 5.0 IP, 8 H, 7 R (5 ER), 2 BBs, 8 Ks
 
Key Team Stats:
 
Batting-
Runners Left on Base: Storm- 4, Cavaliers- 8
Walks: Storm- 2, Cavaliers- 3
Strikeouts: Storm- 7, Cavaliers- 10
Stolen Bases: Storm- 0, Cavaliers- 1
 
Pitching-
Walks: Storm- 3, Cavaliers- 2
Strikeouts: Storm- 10, Cavaliers- 7
Hit by Pitches: Storm- 0, Cavaliers- 2
 
Fielding-
Errors: Storm- 3, Cavaliers- 0
 
Game 1 Top Storm Performers: 
 
R-Soph. Mitchel Szymczak: 1-3, HR (3), 3 RBI, BB, R
Sr. Garrett Esposito: 3-4, K
Soph. Travis Yankovich: 2-4, R, K
 
Game 2:
Lake Erie- 5
Walsh- 4
 
Walsh would jump out to an early 1-0 lead in the first. Lake Erie would see their first lead of the day in the second, putting two on the board with an RBI single from Garrett Esposito and an RBI fielder's choice from Sebastian Silva for a 2-1 lead. The Cavaliers would tie it at 2-2 in the bottom half. The Storm would strike again in the fourth, plating three on a solo home run from Graham Solak, his fourth of the season, and a two-run home run from Mitchel Szymczak, his fourth of the season for a 5-2 lead. Lake Erie would threaten again in the fifth and sixth, loading the bases each inning, but no runs would be plated. Walsh would fight back, putting up two in the sixth cutting the lead to 5-4. Brandon Metivier would close the door for the save, giving the Storm a 5-4 game two victory.
 
W: Alex Caudill (2-1) – 5.1 IP, 2 H, 4 R (3 ER), 3 BBs, 9 Ks
L: Martin Polonkay (0-3) – 3.0 IP, 5 H, 5 ER, BB, 3 Ks
S: Brandon Metivier (2) – 1.0 IP, H, 0 ER, BB, K
 
Key Team Stats:
 
Batting-
Runners Left on Base: Storm- 8, Cavaliers- 7
Walks: Storm- 3, Cavaliers- 4
Strikeouts: Storm- 8, Cavaliers- 11
Stolen Bases: Storm- 0, Cavaliers- 2
 
Pitching-
Walks: Storm- 4, Cavaliers- 3
Strikeouts: Storm- 11, Cavaliers- 8
Hit by Pitches: Storm- 1, Cavaliers- 3
 
Fielding-
Errors: Storm- 1, Cavaliers- 0
 
Game 2 Top Storm Performers:
 
Soph. Mitchel Szymczak: 2-3, HR (4), 2 RBI, BB, 2 R
Sr. Graham Solak: 1-3, HR (4), RBI, BB, R
Soph. Micah Geise: 1-2, BB, K, 2 R
 
Game 3:
Lake Erie- 15
Walsh- 12
 
Walsh raced out to an early 8-0 lead after two innings, with the Storm committing five errors. Lake Erie began clawing back, putting up three runs in the third with an RBI single from Zimba Cadiz, and Cadiz and Travis Yankovich scoring on an error to cut the lead to 8-3. The Storm continued to chip away at the Cavaliers lead, adding two more in the fourth for an 8-5 Cavaliers lead, with a two-run home run from Garrett Esposito, his first home run of the season. Walsh would add two runs to their lead in the bottom half for a 10-5 lead. Lake Erie would erupt in the sixth with 10 runs, with RBI singles from Esposito, Zimba and Mannuk Cadiz, and Micah Geise, an RBI sacrifice fly from Israel Espinosa, Jaxson Christ reaching on a fielder's choice, an RBI double from Mitchel Szymczak, and a two-run home run from Esposito, his second of the game and season for a 15-10 lead. The Cavaliers would respond with one in the bottom half to cut the lead to 15-11. Walsh would add one in the seventh and would threaten for more, with runners on second and third, but Brandon Metivier would shut the door to strand the runners to secure his second save of the series and give the Storm the 15-12 victory in game three. 
 
W: Nicholas Oyster (1-0) – 1.2 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BBs, K
L: Brady Rice (0-2) – 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, BB, 0 Ks
S: Brandon Metivier (3) – 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER
 
Key Team Stats:
 
Batting-
Runners Left on Base: Storm- 2, Cavaliers- 9
Walks: Storm- 2, Cavaliers- 7
Strikeouts: Storm- 10, Cavaliers- 8
Stolen Bases: Storm- 1, Cavaliers- 1
 
Pitching-
Walks: Storm- 7, Cavaliers- 2
Strikeouts: Storm- 10, Cavaliers- 8
Hit by Pitches: Storm- 1, Cavaliers- 0
 
Fielding-
Errors: Storm- 5, Cavaliers- 1
 
Game 3 Top Storm Performers:
 
Sr. Garrett Esposito: 3-4, 2 HR (2), 5 RBI, 3 R
R-Soph. Mitchel Szymczak: 2-4, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R
Sr. Zimba Cadiz: 2-3, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R, BB, SB
 
Game 4:
Lake Erie- 13
Walsh- 7
 
Lake Erie picked up where they left off from game three, putting three up in the first with an RBI double from Garrett Esposito and a solo home run from Travis Yankovich, his first of the season for an early lead. Walsh would answer back in the bottom half and second putting up two runs to cutting the score to 3-2. The Cavaliers would take a 4-3 lead in the third. The Storm added another run in the fourth with a solo home run from Yankovich, his second home run of the game and season, tying the score at 4-4. Walsh would add two more in the bottom half, growing the lead to 6-4. Lake Erie would plate another run in the fifth with another solo home run, this time from Esposito, his third of the season, cutting the lead to 6-5. The Storm would take the lead back in the seventh with an RBI double from Jaxson Christ with the score at 8-6. The Cavaliers would cut lead to 8-7 in the bottom half, taking advantage of two errors. Lake Erie would answer back with five in the eighth, with an RBI single from Micah Geise, an RBI double from Graham Solak, and Yankovich and Solak scoring on a wild pitch and balk, bringing the score to 13-7. The Storm would hold the Cavaliers scoreless in the eighth and ninth to take game four 13-7 and secure the series victory.
 
W: Colin Neimeister (1-0) – 4.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R (0 ER), 0 BBs, 8 Ks
L: Chad Harper (0-3) – 1.0 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 0 BBs, K
 
Key Team Stats:
 
Batting-
Runners Left on Base: Storm- 8, Cavaliers- 8
Walks: Storm- 3, Cavaliers- 3
Strikeouts: Storm- 9, Cavaliers- 10
Stolen Bases: Storm- 2, Cavaliers- 2
 
Pitching-
Walks: Storm- 3, Cavaliers- 3
Strikeouts: Storm- 10, Cavaliers- 9
Hit by Pitches: Storm- 1, Cavaliers- 4
 
Fielding-
Errors: Storm- 4, Cavaliers- 1
 
Game 4 Top Storm Performers:
 
Soph. Travis Yankovich: 3-4, 2 HR (2), 2 RBI, 4 R, HBP, BB, K
Sr. Garrett Esposito: 2-4, HR (3), 2B, 3 RBI, R, BB, K
Soph. Jaxson Christ: 2-5, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 R, HBP
 
Series Evaluation
 
Long Ball Ignites Offense: Lake Erie showcased their power this weekend by hitting eight home runs, four of which were multi-run. Garrett Esposito posted his first career multi home run game in game three, along with another in game four while Travis Yankovich posted his first career multi home run game in game four. Mitchel Szymczak also posted a multi home run weekend, hitting one each in games one and two. 
 
Pitching Staff Shows Signs of Weakness: The Storm's pitching staff showed signs of weakness this weekend, giving up seven or more runs in three of the four games. Even though the runs were up, strikeouts stayed up as well, posting 39 strikeouts in the four-game series. The Storm continues to have the most strikeouts (227), and lowest batting average against (.231) in the G-MAC.
 
Defensive Struggles Continue: Despite the successful weekend from the offense, the defense struggled mightily in this series recording 13 errors. Lake Erie is now last in errors (44), and fielding percentage (.936) in the G-MAC.
 
The Matchup
 
Lake Erie's series victory brings the all-time record to 16-20 all-time against Walsh. This is the first series victory against Walsh for Lake Erie since 2016. 
 
Looking Ahead
 
Lake Erie will travel to Malone University for a non-conference matchup on Tuesday, March 25th at 12 p.m.