HAMMOND, Ind. – The Purdue Northwest baseball team dropped both games of a windy doubleheader against Wayne State on Saturday. Wind gusts reached as high as 40 mph and were blowing straight out at Dowling Park.
Wayne State won the first game 7-4 and cruised in the nightcap, 23-3. PNW dropped to 9-19 (3-16 GLIAC) overall as the visiting Warriors improved to 19-8 (11-4 GLIAC).
GAME 1: WSU 7, PNW 4
Wayne State plated three runs in the final inning to break a 4-4 tie and held on to capture the first game.
Chad Patrick struck out 15 batters in six innings to match his season high. The right-hander increased his league-leading strikeout total to 86 in just 57.0 innings of work. He walked one and surrendered six hits in the no-decision.
The Warriors got on the board first with a two-run shot in the first inning off the bat of Michael MacClean.
PNW would respond with a run on
Anthony Agne's RBI double in the third and then the Pride took the lead on a two-run blast from
Jake Soules in the fourth. However, the Warriors had an answer all game for the Pride as the visitors plated two more in the fifth.
Luke Montgomery delivered a clutch two-out, game-tying single in the sixth to even the score at 4-4 before the Warriors rallied in the final frame. Soules led off the sixth with a double and moved to third on a fly ball to set up Montgomery's heroics.
Soules went 2-for-3 with two runs scored and two RBIs. The home run marked his fourth long ball of the year. Montgomery (2-for-3, 2B, RBI) also collected a pair of hits along with
Brett Veltema (2-for-4, 2B). The Pride totaled four doubles in the opening contest which tied for their most doubles in a game this season.
GAME 2: WSU 23, PNW 3
Agne and Soules recorded back-to-back doubles in the first inning and the Pride added a pair on
Ethan Imlach's two-run single in the ninth, but that was all the offense the Pride would get. Wayne State used a seven-run second and six-run fourth to break open the contest.
NEXT UP
PNW and Wayne State will play the series finale tomorrow afternoon at Dowling Park with a noon CDT first pitch. The Pride will honor their nine seniors prior to the contest.
