By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Kirtland, Ohio---Jake Weshalek (Shrine Catholic/Royal Oak, Mich.) blasted a 10th inning home run to give the Owens Community College baseball team a split of a conference doubleheader following an 8-1 loss in today's first game.
Game 1: Lakeland 8 Owens 1
Owens starter Luke Whelpton (Vauxhall/Brandon, Manitoba, Canada) lasted just two plus innings, while the Owens offense struggled in an 8-1 loss in today's first game.
After Lakeland scored once in the first, Benjamin Breymier's (North Central/Indianapolis, Ind.) leadoff triple started the Owens second inning. He scored on a wild pitch moments later to tie the game.
Lakeland, however, scored twice more in the second. Then, in the third, they chased Whelpton after four straight baserunners reached to start the inning.
Blake Kuszmaul (Bryan/Bryan, Ohio) entered in relief and calmed the storm, although Lakeland held a 7-1 lead after the inning ended. They would add one more in the fifth to finish the game's scoring.
Offensively, Owens had chances to score, but stranded runners in scoring position to end the first, third, fourth and seventh innings. In all, they produced four hits in the game with three of them of the extra base variety. Aside from Breymier's triple, the team had doubles from Casey Gose (Genoa/Genoa, Ohio) and Jake Norbut (Grove City/Grove City, Ohio). Jake Wichlacz (Eisenhower/Macomb, Mich.) added a single.
Kuszmaul's final line included four innings, five hits, one run, zero walks and three strikeouts, while Whelpton totaled two plus innings, five hits, seven runs, four walks and one strikeout. He fell to 2-5 this year with the loss.
Game 2: Owens 4 Lakeland 2 (10 Innings)
Weshalek's 10th inning homer propeled Owens past Lakeland in extra innings to close out today's doubleheader.
Prior to that, the pitching duo of Ardry Mercado (St. Raymond's HS for Boys/Manhattan, N.Y.) and Steve Georgic (Airport/Carleton, Mich.) held Lakeland to just a pair of runs over nine innings.
Back to back triples by Charlie Sipe (Northrop/Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Justin Curry (Anthony Wayne/Perrysburg, Ohio) gave Owens a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The home team would answer back right away in the bottom half with a leadoff solo home run off Mercado.
After Lakeland took a 2-1 lead in the third, Owens answered back in the fifth via some small ball to tie the game. Robbie Walker (Snider/Fort Wayne, Ind.) was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. Nolan Rao (Whitmer/Toledo, Ohio) sacrificed him to second, and Gose knocked Walker home with an RBI single.
From that point on through the eighth inning, each team stranded at least one runner in scoring position three times apiece. In the top of the ninth, Owens put runners on second and third with two outs, but Curry struck out to end the inning. In the home half, Lakeland produced a double and two walks to load the bases with one out, but Georgic fanned back-to-back hitters to send the game to the 10th.
Weshalek then led off the next inning with a home run. Wichlacz followed with a single in the next at bat, and Walker knocked him home two batters later for a 4-2 lead.
Staked to a two-run lead, Georgic retired the side in order to end the game.
Offensively, Wichlacz picked up his second multi-hit effort over the past three games by finishing 3-for-4 with a run. Weshalek (2-for-4, HR, BB), Gose (2-for-4, RBI), Tyler Byerly (Washington Township/Crown Point, Ind.) (2-for-5) and Sipe (2-for-5, RBI) also had multi-hit games.
Georgic improved to 2-0 with the win. He allowed just one hit, while walking three, over three innings. He struck out five.
Mercado picked up the no decision. He struck out three while allowing six hits, two runs and three walks over seven innings.
Notes
Owens is now 17-22 overall and 7-17 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play after today's split. The team's road game at Grand Rapids Community College this coming Monday has been canceled by Grand Rapids due to having to make up league games.
Thus, Owens won't be back in action as of now until postseason play begins next Friday. At 12:30 p.m., they will take on Lakeland in the winner's bracket semifinals of hte National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II Sub-District tournament at Cuyahoga Community College's Western Campus.
Should they win, Owens would take on the winner of the other semifinal between Cuyahoga and Vincennes at 5:30 p.m. Should they lose, they would take on the loser of the other semifinal at 3 p.m.
The winner of the four-team, double-elimination tournament will advance to the NJCAA Region XII tournament May 13-16.