Cards Establish Single Season Home Run Record
FROSTBURG, Md. (April 17) - The Wheeling University baseball team collected a pair of wins over Frostburg State Saturday afternoon in Mountain East Conference (MEC) play. The Cardinals won game one 5-1, before closing the day with an 11-8 victory.
Wheeling (17-8, 13-5 MEC) hit four home runs on the day to establish a new single-season program-record of 18 home runs. The 2010 and 2013 Cardinal teams previously held the record with 17 home runs during those seasons.
Wheeling broke out the bats in the final two innings to earn the 5-1 win in game one. The Cardinals trailed 1-0 with one out in the sixth inning when senior third baseman Luis Dominguez (Bronx, N.Y./Cardinal Spellman) delivered a game-tying home run.
Junior shortstop Connor Watt (Roanoke, Va./Glenvar) gave the Cardinals the lead in the seventh with a two-RBI double, before junior Chris Iazzetta (Clinton, N.J./IMG Academy) tacked on two more with another RBI-double that made the score 5-1.
The run support helped propel sophomore pitcher Jared Naida (Cleveland, Ohio/Lakewood) to his third win of the season. Naida (3-0) limited the Bobcats to one run on five hits over six innings of work.
The Cardinals jumped on the Bobcats in the first inning of game two. After Dominguez singled in one run, Iazzetta connected on a three-run home run to make the score
Wheeling led 5-3 in the fourth inning when it loaded the bases with one out. Junior left fielder Blake Vandiver cleared the bases with a three-RBI- double, before a single by junior center fielder Jack Skantze (Clearwater, Fla./Countryside) knocked in Vandiver to push the score to 9-3.
Frostburg State countered with a three-run fourth inning and made the score 10-7 after five innings played.
A home run by Skantze pushed the Wheeling lead back to 11-7 in the sixth inning. The Cardinal bullpen managed to close the door to preserve the game two victory.
Skantze finished with three hits, including a home run, and two RBIs. Vandiver and Iazzetta each had three RBIs, while sophomore first baseman Riley Cameron (Vass, N.C./Union Pines) added his fifth home run of the season.
Sophomore pitcher Hayden Scudder (Spring Hill, Tenn./Spring Hill) came on in relief and tossed 1.2 innings to earn the win. He allowed one run on two hits and stranded two runners in the fourth inning to help the Cardinals maintain their lead.
The Cardinal offense hit three home runs in a game for the first time since 2016. Wheeling connected on a trio of long balls in a 11-10 loss to Gannon on April 1 of that season.
Wheeling will go for the series sweep tomorrow, Sunday, April 18 when they take on Frostburg State for two more games in Maryland beginning at 1 p.m.