Baseball takes 2 of 3 from EMU

By Brian Earle

aseball came away with its first conference series victory over the weekend, winning two out of three games against Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti, Mich.

The Huskies (9-22-1, 5-7 MAC) won games one and two, 10-2 Friday and 5-3 Saturday, in extra innings before falling to the Eagles (12-21, 2-10 MAC) in the finale, 8-4, Sunday.

In Friday’s victory, the Huskies broke out the bats as they recorded 12 hits. Third baseman Carl Russell, outfielder Tommy Hook, catcher Joe Battaglia and shortstop Brian Sisler all recorded two hits on the day. Sisler came up with his seventh double of the season in the seventh inning, driving in two of his three RBIs in the game.

On the mound, pitcher Anthony Andres threw a strong game as he picked up his third win of the season. He went seven innings and gave up two runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out two batters.

In game two, the Huskies came away with their first extra innings victory of the season as they scored two runs in the top of the 10th inning to secure the win.

First baseman Alex Klonowski got the inning started with a leadoff single and quickly advanced to second base when outfielder Brandon Mallder laid down a sacrifice bunt. Sisler followed that up with a walk, and pinch hitter Chris Divarco came up with a single to load the bases with one out.

After Battaglia struck out, center fielder Jason Gasser drew a walk which allowed Klonowski to score from third base and the Huskies to take a one-run lead. The Huskies then took advantage of a wild pitch as Sisler scored from third to put the Huskies up 5-3.

“It was good from the standpoint that we took advantage of some miscues, walks and hit by pitches, and added a couple of runs, not just one,” said coach Ed Mathey.

Pitcher Eli Anderson was a workhorse, throwing a career-high 128 pitches in 8.1 innings. He gave up nine hits and two walks while striking out 10 batters. Pitcher Ben Neumann relieved Anderson in the ninth inning and ended up pitching 1.2 innings to earn his third victory of the season.

“They got to Eli early in the game, but he really stabilized as the game on and he gave us a lot of innings, which was huge,” Mathey said.

In the Huskies’ lone loss of the weekend, they were out of character as they were done in by four costly errors in the field. Klonowski lasted 5.1 innings while giving up eight runs, four unearned, on eight runs and two walks.

“Alex threw the ball well enough. He wasn’t as sharp, obviously, as he was last weekend,” Mathey said. “Our defense just didn’t make some plays behind him, and Alex is a guy that pitches to contact and wants his defense behind him and needs to have it there, and we weren’t there today. [We] gave away some free bases and a couple of the plays prolonged their innings.”

At the plate, the Huskies only recorded five hits. Russell’s 10-game hitting streak came to an end as he went 0-5 at the plate with two strikeouts on the day.