BOX SCORES:  GAME 1  |  GAME 2

DETROIT - The Wayne State University baseball team (28-17, 19-13 GLIAC) opened its final home weekend of the season by splitting a doubleheader against Lake Erie College (26-22, 22-12 GLIAC) on Saturday afternoon.  The Storm won the opener in extra innings, 5-4, and the Warriors earned a 5-1 win in game two.

Based on Saturday's results around the league, Wayne State has assured itself of a berth in the GLIAC Tournament for the eighth time in nine years.

The Warriors and Storm will wrap up the four-game series Sunday at noon.  Wayne State will honor its 15-member senior class prior to the start of the doubleheader.


GAME 1: LAKE ERIE 5, WAYNE STATE 4 (8 INN.)

The Warriors scored twice in the sixth inning and once in the seventh to erase a 4-1 deficit, but the Storm responded with a run in the top of the eighth.

Kyle Vesey (Brighton, Mich.), Alex Trojan (Fenton, Mich./Hartland) and Kasey Koster (Portage, Mich./Central) led Wayne State with two hits apiece.  Vesey scored twice, and Trojan drove in two key runs late in the game.

In the sixth, Vesey reached second base on a dropped fly ball by LEC centerfielder Aaron Lindgren.  He would eventually score on a base hit by Trojan, who in turn later scored on a wild pitch.

Consecutive one-out singles in the seventh by Andrew Ciennik (Waterford, Mich./Mott) and Vesey, and a subsequent walk to Kyle Zimmerman (Frankfort, Mich.), loaded the bases for Trojan who brought in a run with a sacrifice fly.  The Warriors left two runners stranded, however, as they did in the sixth and eighth innings.

Kyle Kemp was hit by a pitch with one out in the eighth, went to second on a wild pitch and scored the winning run on an RBI single by Nick Lovick.

Josh Wedesky (Fowlerville, Mich.) battled through the first six innings, allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits.  Kemp's two-run single in the second and a solo home run by Pat Kilway – the only extra-base hit of the game – in the fifth inning were the crucial hits for the Storm.

Wayne State scored an unearned run on an error in the second, but Lake Erie starter Adam Beach escaped the bases-loaded jam.  The Warriors stranded 11 runners in the game altogether.

Beach allowed just three hits in five innings before giving way to Doug Fox (3-1), who surrendered the tying runs but fanned three in two innings.  Heath Kelley picked up his third save of the year, and Billy Hurley (Mississauga, Ont./St. Aloysius Gonzaga) took the loss (3-1) for Wayne State.


GAME 2: WAYNE STATE 5, LAKE ERIE 1

Alex Pierse (Clinton Twp., Mich./De La Salle) pitched six solid innings and improved to 6-1 on the year.  He allowed just one unearned run and scattered seven hits, walked three and struck out four.

Zimmerman smacked his third home run of the season, one of his two hits in the game, and posted his third four-RBI game of the year.  Brad Guenther (Ann Arbor, Mich./Saline) and Kenny Davis (Wyoming, Mich./Lee) also had two-hit performances.

Wayne State took a 1-0 lead in the first inning as Zimmerman drove in Guenther, who led off with a base hit, on a sacrifice fly.  Zimmerman's three-run shot over the Green Monster in left made it a 4-0 game in the third.

The Storm put across their lone run in the fourth as Kilway, who reached on an error, later scored on a double play.  The Warriors answered in the sixth on Vesey's sacrifice fly, bringing home Justin DeFrancis (Rochester, Mich./Stoney Creek).

Ethan Vasiliauskas (South Rockwood, Mich./Carleton Airport) pitched a scoreless seventh inning in relief of Pierse.  Logan Nordquist, the first of three Lake Erie pitchers, took the loss (2-5).


NOTES

Wayne State has split its last four doubleheaders and seven of its last eight … Pierse earned his 12th career victory … Vesey extended his hitting streak to eight games … Ciennik has reached base in 10 straight … the Warriors are 2-2 in extra-inning games.