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May 10, 2002
AKRON, Ohio - A three-run eighth inning by the Akron Zips (18-24, 8-12 Mid-American) forced the Miami University (24-24, 11-10 MAC) baseball team into a 5-4 defeat, and its third straight loss. Zips' reliever Justin Lucas locked down the win with his first save while junior David Cook (Columbus, Ohio/St. Francis DeSales) slapped a double in the fifth inning to extend his hitting streak to 14 games.
On a very windy afternoon at Akron's Lee Jackson Field the RedHawks fell behind early when the Zips scored one run in the first inning off junior hurler Chris Leonard (Columbus, Ohio/St. Francis DeSales). Akron tallied its first run when Leonard walked the leadoff batter, Ryan Brickwood, and allowed a double off the bat of Craig Welch, which scored Brady Steineck from first base. Steineck reached on a fielder's choice after failing to lay down a sacrifice bunt.
The deficit was short-lived as the Red and White knotted the game at 1-1 in the top of the second frame. Freshman Paul Frietch (Montgomery, Ohio/Moeller) reached on an error by the first basemen, and advanced to second on a wild pitch by Akron starter Ben McCauley. Frietch trotted to third when sophomore Ryan Edginton (Chester Springs, Pa./Arizona State) slapped one of his two hits through the left side to put men on first and third. The RedHawks tied the game one batter later when junior Andi Scheidt (Cincinnati, Ohio/LaSalle) hit a sacrifice fly to right field scoring Frietch.
The RedHawks took a quick 2-1 lead in the fourth stanza when Scheidt hit his second sacrifice fly of the contest, scoring Frietch again. Akron, however, retaliated with a run of its own in the bottom of the inning to knot the game at 2-2.
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Leonard tossed one more solid inning to keep Miami tied 2-2, and became the pitcher of record when the RedHawks crossed the plate twice in the sixth frame. Already with two runs in the game Frietch hit a one-out double to right-center field to get things started. He advanced to third on a ground out and scored on a passed ball. McCauley walked the next two Red and White batters before junior Zach Schmidt (Cincinnati, Ohio/McNicholas) hit an RBI single to center field to give his team a 4-2 lead.
After missing in the sixth inning with the bases loaded the Zips cashed in in the eighth frame with three runs. Junior reliever Adam Keel (Fairfield, Ohio/Fairfield), who had pitched two scoreless innings since entering the contest in the sixth, ran into trouble in the eighth when he dealt a 1-0 pitch to Tom Lindhe which resulted in a two-run double tying the game at 4-4. Senior southpaw Russ Bayer (Naperville, Ill./Naperville North) relieved Keel facing a situation with men on second and third. The Zips surprised Bayer and the RedHawks by executing a suicide squeeze to score Lou Pederi and take a 5-4 lead.
Miami threatened to tie the contest in the ninth inning when sophomore pinch hitter Josh Widlansky (Coral Gables, Fla./Travella) led off with a double down the right-field line, but couldn't plate Widlansky as Lucas left two Miami runners in scoring position for the save. McCauley ups his record to 5-6 with the victory while Keel suffers the loss falling to 2-5.
The RedHawks and the Zips square off again tomorrow, May 11, with a doubledip at 1 p.m.
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