Collective Effort Gives Eagles Baseball Doubleheader Sweep of Oilers
April 29, 2006

Complete Box Scores
Game 1         Game 2

The Ashland University baseball team went into the Kenny Chesney mode Saturday (April 29) against Findlay at Donges Field. The hits just kept on coming and they came from every spot in the lineup.

AU swept the Oilers, 13-6 and 5-3. In the first game, every Ashland starter had at least one safety and AU collected 18 hits. The second game saw the Eagles add 11 more hits.

Ashland is 40-10, 21-5 in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play. This is the fifth time in head coach John Schaly’s nine years at AU that the Eagles have won 40 or more games. AU is second in the GLIAC, trailing Grand Valley State, which swept Mercyhurst on Saturday.

Findlay is 26-21, 14-11 in conference play. The Oilers are locked in a battle with Wayne State for fourth place in the conference. The winner of that battle will advance to the GLIAC tournament.

In Saturday’s first game, AU stunned Oilers starter Brett Bostelman (2-6) with three runs in the first inning. Left fielder David Waters led off with a homer and two other runs came home in the frame thanks to doubles by Justin Randall and Casey Jirsa and a single by Justin Richards.

Findlay tied the game with three runs in the third inning, but AU answered with three runs in its half of the stanza. The Eagles put the game away with four runs in the fourth inning. That surge featured doubles by Jirsa and Richards and a triple by John Hosgood.

Richards finished the game 3-for-4 with three RBI and catcher Ray Frisbee was 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI. Waters and Hosgood both went 2-for-4. AU had seven extra-base hits.

Josh Davidson went five innings to up his record to 12-3. Davidson gave up four runs – one earned – on six hits. He walked two and struck out six. Davidson’s win total is the third best single-season win total in school history. He’s tied with Ken Kravec for fifth in career wins (28).

Chad Guey was 2-for-3 for the Oilers, who finished with eight hits.

In the second game, AU scored two runs in the second inning, two in the fourth and pushed across an insurance run in the sixth. Waters was 2-for-3 and drove home two runs and Randall, Hosgood and center fielder Tyson Rowland each went 2-for-3. Rowland clubbed his second triple of the season.

AU starter Cody Castle gave up a leadoff triple to George Rohan. Findlay didn’t reach him for another hit until Guey led off the seventh inning with a single. Castle, however, was working with a gas tank that was less than full. With one out in the seventh inning, Spencer Ferst hit a two-run homer to left to make the score 5-3. That was Ferst’s second homer of the season.

Castle (5-1) got one more out before he was removed in favor of lefty Ryan Douglas, who retired Richie Van Hoose via a strikeout to get his third save of the season. Castle worked 6 2/3 innings and allowed three runs on three hits. He walked one and struck out six.

Freshman Zach Hile (3-3) was the loser. In six innings, he allowed five runs on 11 hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out three.

Ashland and Findlay will play another doubleheader on Sunday (April 30) at Donges Field. That twinbill begins at 1 p.m.