Eagles Outlast Lakers, Win Two on Sunday
March 28, 2004

Complete Box Scores
Game 1       Game 2       Game 3

Marathon runners talk about hitting the wall around mile 20 or 22. The Ashland University baseball team didn’t hit the wall Sunday (Mar. 28) during six hours of baseball and the AU pitchers made sure that the Grand Valley Lakers didn’t hit much of anything.

The Eagles took two of three games Sunday at Donges Field and finished the weekend with three wins in four games. The teams finished a suspended game Sunday and that contest went to GVSU, 6-0. Ashland rebounded to win the two games that followed, 7-3 and 5-4. AU, ranked 14th in the nation as of last week, is 19-7, 3-1 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Grand Valley State is 13-10 and 4-4.

The teams began play at 11 a.m. The suspended game resumed in the top of the fourth inning with GVSU in front, 1-0. The Lakers got to AU lefty Bryce Bednarczyk for a single tally in the fifth frame and four runs in the sixth. The key blow was a three-run homer by GVSU leadoff hitter Scott Smith.

Only senior catcher Josh Gaub could do much against the Lakers, he was 2-for-3. AU ran into a tough customer in Laker lefty Matt Rafeld. The senior scattered three hits over four innings. He didn’t walk a batter. Rafeld got the save, the win went to Sean McLeod, who hurled the front three innings on Saturday.

The Eagles followed that game with a pitching gem of their own. Junior righthander Cody Castle upped his record to 4-0 by beating the Lakers, 7-3. Castle was touched for 10 hits, but over the final four innings he surrendered just four safeties. The only time he encountered trouble was the third inning when the Lakers scored all three of their runs. Castle walked one and fanned eight.

Much of AU’s punch came from senior second baseman Mark Kahlenberg. Hitting out of the ninth spot, Kahlenberg was 2-for-3 with a pair of run-scoring singles. Bednarczyk and sophomore outfielder David Waters had two hits apiece.

In the day’s final game, the Eagles turned to another junior righty – Todd Martinelli. Martinelli struggled early, allowing two runs in the first inning. But like Castle, once he got his act together, he was brilliant. The Lakers managed only three hits off of Martinelli after the first inning. He lasted 6 2/3 innings and allowed three runs, all earned, on five hits. He walked three and struck out three.

Martinelli (4-2) had to watch with crossed fingers in the dugout as GVSU mounted a late comeback in the seventh. With two outs, the Lakers loaded the bases against junior lefthander Ryan Douglas. The inning started with AU in front, 5-2. Douglas walked in one run and so did senior righthander Chad Moore before Moore got the game’s final out, inducing Brandon McFarland to line out to shortstop Eric McDaniel.

Gaub paced the Eagles at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI. Centerfielder Brandon Cornell was 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI.

Ashland returns to action on Tuesday, hosting Northern Kentucky in a non-conference twinbill.