Baseball Shifts Focus to National Championship Draw After WHAC Tourney Elimination
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Lawrence Tech | 3 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 12 | 0 |
|
(RV) Northwestern Ohio | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 |
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - UNOH Baseball saw their WHAC Tournament run come to an end Friday night at the hands of Lawrence Tech. The Racer offense struggled to produce runs and the Blue Devils took advantage downing the three-time conference champions 11-1 in seven innings.
The first two Lawrence Tech batters were put away with minimal effort, but things got complicated quickly after that. Three consecutive singles brought in the game's first run before a triple capped off a three-run first inning for the Blue Devils. Fabian Romero led off the bottom with a double and Cesar Grau brought him in to score, but it came with a price as the ground ball resulted in a double play and disrupted the early momentum for UNOH.
After Lawrence hung another six runs in the second, the game felt out of reach early for the Racers who struggled to produce base runners the rest of the game. Only once did they make it past first base coming off an Eliomar Otero one-out double in the home half of the sixth. The Blue Devils finished off the elimination early after a single run in both the sixth and seventh innings put them up by ten activating the ten-run mercy rule after seven.
UNOH produced just five total hits in the game with two coming off the bat of Otero. Romero, Grau and Jake Watson were responsible for the other three.
Zach Cabell (6-4) took the loss after just an inning giving up seven runs on six hits with two walks and a strikeout. Brayden Lybarger did most of the work going five innings in relief with two runs, one earned, on six hits with six strikeouts and two walks. Parker Kerr finished off the final frame retiring the only three batters he faced.
With the conference tournament in the rear view mirror, UNOH now shifts their focus to the NAIA National Championship draw that will determine their Opening Round location and opponent on Wednesday, May 6. The Baseball Selection Show can be viewed on the NAIA YouTube page when it airs at 5:00 PM EST.
>>NAIA YouTube<<