Eagles Complete Series Sweep of Oilers
March 23, 2003

For the Findlay baseball team Sunday in Ashland, nothing went against Wright. Or to put it another way, thanks to a start against Nate Wright, everything went wrong for the Oilers.

In the first game of Sunday’s doubleheader at Donges Field, the AU baseball team, behind Wright, a senior righthander, won a 2-1 pitching dual against the Oilers. The momentum from that win sent AU to a 14-3 victory in the second game. That gives AU nine consecutive wins against the Oilers. Ashland is now 4-0 in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play and 14-7 overall. Findlay is 3-12 and 0-4.

Wright, the GLIAC pitcher of the week last week, is 4-0. He was matched against UF righty Drew Binkowski and both pitchers performed well. Wright was touched for a run on four hits. He struck out seven and walked one. Binkowski allowed two runs on six hits. He whiffed five and walked three.

Ashland broke on top, 1-0 in the fourth inning, senior outfielder Adam Whetstone swatting a two-out single to plate senior Butch Kaufman. Kaufman had doubled with one out.

The Oilers tied the game, 1-1 in the sixth. Ken Beamer and Chad Feasel began the inning with singles and both advanced a base on a sacrifice bunt by Joe Seifried. Catcher Sean Vargo’s sacrifice fly brought home Beamer with the lone Findlay run.

The Eagles got the win for Wright in the bottom of the seventh. Whetstone led off with a single and moved to second on second baseman Adam Whetstone’s sacrifice bunt. Whestone wasn’t at second long – the next hitter, freshman outfielder David Waters – drove him in with a single.

That was Water’s second single of the game – he finished 2-for-3. Whetstone was also 2-for-3.

The second game didn’t have nearly as much drama. AU led 3-1 after one inning and put the game away with seven runs in the fifth inning. Ashland had seven hits in the inning – all singles. Senior shortstop Tim Hinchliffe had three hits for the game. He was 3-for-5. Waters was 2-for-3, Wilson belted a triple and senior Brock Wiskochil had a double. Freshman outfielder Bryce Bednarczyk drove in three runs while going 2-for-5. AU collected 13 hits.

Senior Chris Skibinski earned the win, lasting 5 1/3 innings. Normally, Skibinski plays third or first, but he’s in the process of developing into part of the starting rotation. He allowed nine hits and all three UF runs. He had two strikeouts and one walk before leaving in favor of sophomore lefty Ryan Douglas. Skibinski is 3-0.

Jeff Opfer had a pair of singles for Findlay. Travis Smith drilled a triple and Todd Lamb doubled.

The Eagles have won four of their last five games. AU will host Ohio Dominican Wednesday (Mar. 26) in a non-league affair before hosting Gannon for four games next weekend.