Eagles To Host GLIAC Baseball Tournament
May 3, 2004

In addition to routes 250, 42 and interstate 71, another road will come through Ashland, OH, this weekend. No need to be concerned about traffic delays, however. The Ohio Department of Transportation won’t have anything to do with this project.

The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference baseball tournament will be held at AU’s Donges Field Thursday through Saturday, May 6-8. The rain date is Sunday, May 9. The GLIAC tournament is a four-team, double-elimination affair.

Ashland secured the right to host the tourney thanks to finishing as the conference’s regular season champion. The Eagles enter the tournament riding an 11-game winning streak. AU is 43-11, 23-5 in GLIAC play. Ashland will play the fourth seed, Wayne State (22-26/14-12).

Thursday’s first game pits the second seed, Grand Valley State (36-14/23-7), against third-seeded Saginaw Valley State (25-23/17-13). The GVSU-SVSU game is slated to begin at noon. Ashland and Wayne State will play at 3 p.m.

Three games are scheduled for Friday. At 10 a.m., the winners from Thursday’s games will play. The second game on Friday, which will be played at 1 p.m., is an elimination game, pitting the two losing teams from Thursday. The final game on Friday, which has a 4 p.m. start time, has the winner of Friday’s first game going up against the survivor of Friday’s 1 p.m. contest.

Play on Saturday begins at noon. That is the sixth game of the tournament. If a seventh game is needed, it will be played at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Because this is a conference event, admission will be charged. Tickets for adults are $5 each and the price for students and senior citizens is $2 per ticket.

AU owns a 9-3 record against the three other teams in the tourney. The Eagles went 3-1 against all the other tourney teams. Ashland, Grand Valley State and Saginaw Valley State were all in the tournament field a year ago. Wayne State didn’t advance to the tourney a year ago, in 2003 Hillsdale was the fourth tournament entrant. Grand Valley State and Saginaw Valley State were named co-champs at last year’s tournament. The 2003 championship event was hosted by Grand Valley State and was shortened by rain. Last year marked the first time the league hosted a postseason tournament.

A year ago, Grand Valley State and Ashland were able to use the tournament as a springboard for the NCAA Division II regional tournament. Both teams advanced to the NCAA tournament last season and GVSU won the regional crown and played at the NCAA Championships in Montgomery, AL. Ashland and Grand Valley State have been regionally and nationally ranked throughout this season. As of last week, AU was seventh in the College Baseball Writers poll and eighth in the Baseball Magazine national rankings. Grand Valley State was 21st in the College Baseball Magazine rankings.

Ashland, ranked first in last week’s regional poll, has played its best baseball recently. The pitching staff features three pitchers with eight victories – juniors Cody Castle (Dayton, OH/Sinclair C.C.) and Todd Martinelli (Gahanna, OH/Columbus State C.C.) and freshman Josh Davidson (Lexington, OH). All three hurlers are 8-2 and all three are righthanders.

The offense has a nice blend of veterans and newcomers. Senior outfielder Brandon Cornell (Columbus, OH/Bishop Watterson) recently became AU’s career leader in hits and triples. Senior catcher Josh Gaub (Brunswick, OH), the 2003 GLIAC player of the year, is second in career hits at AU. Junior outfielder Allen Ayers (Columbus, OH/St. Charles Prep) had developed into an outstanding leadoff hitter. In eight games last week Ayers hit .581. For the year, he’s 23-23 in stolen base attempts.

Freshman first baseman Ron Oneson (London, ONT/Saunders Secondary School) has been a perfect fit in the fifth spot in the batting order. He’s hitting .346 with a pair of homers and 35 RBI.

This is the second time in the last three seasons and the fourth time in head coach John Schaly’s seven years at Ashland that the Eagles have won 40 or more games.