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April 28, 2002
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Even with three more solo shots this afternoon at Marshall (15-24, 6-9 Mid-American), bringing its weekend tally to 17 home runs, the Miami University (22-20, 9-7 MAC) baseball team couldn't prevent the Thundering Herd from winning the game 6-5 and forcing the RedHawks into a weekend split. The Red and White tried to claw back scoring one run in the eighth inning, but were held off by Marshall hurler Chris Meadows, who leads the MAC in appearances and earned his first save this afternoon.
As was the case most of the weekend Miami started off by taking an early lead in the contest when freshman Sam Sellery (Carmel, Ind./Cathedral) cleared the wall in left-center field with one swing of the bat. The first-inning run was the fourth straight game that the Red and White have registered at least one run in the opening frame.
Marshall retaliated with one run of its own in the bottom of the first frame when lead-off batter David Colangelo connected for a single making him Marshall's all-time hit leader. Colangelo would make his way around the diamond for the Thundering Herd's first run on a double by Craig Dziedziejko.
Freshman Brian Canada (Fishers, Ind./Hamilton Southeastern) led off the third frame with a triple down the right-field line. Canada scored two pitches later when junior Zach Schmidt (Cincinnati, Ohio/McNicholas) hit a sacrifice fly to right field.
This was the last lead that the Red and White would see as Marshall lit up senior Russ Bayer (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) for three runs in the bottom of the third. All three Thundering Herd runs came after Canada started a routine 643 double play to put two outs on the board. One single, two doubles and a walk were the key components to Marshall's three-run frame, giving it a 4-2 advantage.
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From this point on it seemed that any time Miami scored a run, Marshall would return the favor in its next at-bat. The RedHawks used two hits and a walk in the fifth inning to narrow the gap to 4-3, but the Thundering Herd came right back with one run of their own in the bottom of the frame to push the gap back to two, 5-3.
Junior Michael Carlin's (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mt. Lebanon) fifth dinger of the weekend, a solo shot to left field in the sixth inning, brought the RedHawks back within striking distance at 5-4. Again, Marshall tallied one run in the bottom of the seventh inning to maintain a two-run gap, 6-4.
The RedHawks threatened to take the lead in the eighth stanza when a would-be double by Carlin was ruled foul, and instead he was called out on strikes. This would have made the next play, a home run by freshman Paul Frietch (Montgomery, Ohio/Moeller), the game-tying home run instead of a solo shot cutting the deficit to 6-5.
Bayer gave his team a chance to win by shutting down Marshall in the bottom of the eighth, but Meadows matched Bayer's effort by taking down the RedHawks 1-2-3 in the ninth frame. Meadows earns his first save of the season, Marshall starter Sean Smith receives his first win, while Bayer falls to 6-2 overall on the year.
The RedHawks have a full week to recuperate and practice before welcoming intra-state rival Ohio University to the friendly confines for a MAC weekend series on May 3-5.
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