Mason, Ohio – The Kentucky Wesleyan baseball team's season came to a close at the Great Midwest Baseball Championship inside Prasco Park on Thursday night.
The Panthers started their tournament run strong, downing #2 seed Walsh on Wednesday afternoon, but a walk-off loss to #6 Ohio Dominican and a defeat at the hands of #3 Ashland on Thursday led to the end of the road for Wesleyan.
KWC finished the season 22-28 overall and 13-16 in the G-MAC.
Game 1 – #7 Kentucky Wesleyan vs. #6 Ohio Dominican
After Wesleyan went down in order in the top of the first, ODU went right to work against Isaac Rose, using several singles and some small ball to plate two runs in the bottom half.
Rose settled in from there, matching Ohio Dominican starter Landon Ringhiser with zeros in both the second and the third.
In the top of the fourth, Wesleyan finally broke through offensively with a two-out rally. Tate VanHooser was hit by a pitch, Cade Gudalis doubled down the left field line, and Braden Vinyard capitalized with a single to center field to drive in both baserunners and tie the game 2-2.
ODU took the lead right back in the bottom of the fourth. With runners on first and third and two outs, the home team utilized a double steal and an overturned play at the plate to take a 3-2 advantage.
Later, after a quiet fifth for both teams, Wesleyan managed to tie the game in the top of the sixth. Rhett Dysholm and Gudalis both singled and Vinyard worked a walk to load the bases with one out. Elijah Stockton came up next and lifted a sacrifice fly that allowed Dysholm to score, locking the score up again at 3-3.
Rose completed a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth before Wesleyan earned their first lead of the game in the top of the seventh. Jase Mizell walked, Davis had a productive groundout to move Mizell over, and Dysholm came through with an RBI single to put Wesleyan on top 4-3.
That lead did not last long. Still working against Rose, ODU had a baserunner reach on an error with one out and used that momentum to tack on two runs to steal the lead right back in the bottom half at 5-4. David Castleberry came on to record the final out of the frame.
The back-and-forth action continued in the eighth. Vinyard singled for his fourth hit of the game, Logan Molnar walked, and Liam Hutson doubled down the right field line to push across two more runs for Wesleyan, placing them back in front at 6-5.
Castleberry put up a zero in the eighth and came back out for the ninth after ODU pitched around traffic and kept Wesleyan quiet in their turn at the plate. After a leadoff flyout, Ohio Dominican worked a walk before a triple tied the game at 6-6. Then, after Panthers coach Todd Lillpop decided to intentionally walk the next two batters, ODU hit a ground ball that was just out of Molnar's reach at shortstop to drive in the walk-off run and send the home team home with the victory.
Vinyard had four hits, two RBI, and a walk and Dysholm added three hits and an RBI. Both Molnar and Gudalis had two hits in the game as well.
Game 2 – #7 Kentucky Wesleyan vs. #3 Ashland
In the second game of the day, Wesleyan came out hot. Hutson walked before Davis doubled to drive Hutson home, giving the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
From there, it was all Ashland, who has a chance at an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament even without a G-MAC crown. The Eagles scored two runs in the first, three in the second, two in the fourth, two in the sixth, and one in the seventh for a total of 10 runs on the day.
The Panthers added their second and final run in the top of the fifth. Mizell doubled and Davis again delivered with an RBI single, but that was all the road team could muster in the 10-2 loss.
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