INSTITUTE, W. Va.- The Frostburg State Baseball team used their powerful bats to sweep a Monday afternoon doubleheader against West Virginia State by scores of 6-3 and 12-10.
In game one, the Bobcats used three home runs and strong pitching to pick up a win. Junior Ethan Kiple led the way, as he hit two home runs in his first two at-bats. After Kiple's first homer, senior Jack Lawrence followed with one of his own for back-to-back bombs to give FSU a 2-0 lead in the second. Frostburg would add another run in the third, as freshman Christian Shertzer doubled then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of junior Trevor Jones.
After the Yellow Jackets scored two in the third, Kiple would strike again hitting his second long ball of the game to push the Bobcat lead to 4-2 in the fourth. Senior Andrew Smith and Shertzer would each add an RBI in the seventh to extend the lead to 6-3, as the bullpen was able to close the game out for the win.
On the mound, junior Jack Maruskin was dominant pitching five innings, only giving up one earned run and fanning six. Sophomore Jarek Bacon and freshman Dean Wandell would close the game in the sixth and seventh, respectively, as they each threw perfect innings, combining for three strikeouts. Wandell secured his first collegiate save and Maruskin got his second victory of the year.
In game two, the bats remained hot for Frostburg, as they pounded out 12 runs on 12 hits. The Bobcats would pounce in the first, scoring six runs on five hits. Reigning MEC player of the week Danny Estrada would get things started as he doubled to the gap in left center, followed by a single by Jones. Smith would send Estrada home on a sacrifice fly to right to put FSU on the board. Maruskin hit a big two-out single to bring in Jones and senior Nick Benitez worked a walk before West Virginia State would be forced to send in some relief for their starting pitcher. Freshman Jacob Stretch would jump all over the new reliever, as he launched a shot over the right field fence to put the Bobcats ahead 5-0. Freshman Ben Wieman would follow up by crushing a ball over the center field fence for his first collegiate home run, making it two back-to-back blasts for the offense on the day and capping the inning at six runs.
Frostburg would use the long ball once again in the fourth and fifth innings, as senior Bryce Jackson would launch his conference-leading ninth home run of the year, followed by sophomore Aidan Duda tallying his first home run as a Bobcat to push the lead to 9-2 after five. WVSU responded with four runs in the bottom of the sixth to cut the deficit to 9-6.
Duda wasn't done, however, as he clobbered a ball out to left that cleared the fence for his second homer of the day, driving in Wieman and Lawrence to push the lead back to six. The Yellow Jackets wouldn't go quietly, as they tallied four runs in the bottom of the seventh to get within two, but the Frostburg bullpen got just enough outs to secure the 12-10 win.
On the bump, Kiple threw four innings, giving up just one earned run and striking out five batters to record his third win of the year. Bacon would have another shutout inning in relief for the second consecutive game.
Duda led the offensive charge as he tallied five RBI on two hits in his impressive start. Stretch added three RBI, Estrada recorded two hits, and Wieman scored three runs to round out a stellar game from the Frostburg youth.
With the sweep, Frostburg moves to 16-4 on the year and West Virginia State drops to 9-10. The Bobcats will be back in action on Wednesday, March 30, as they take on Clarion in a nine-inning game at Bob Wells Field, with first pitch scheduled for 3:00 P.M. For more information on Frostburg athletics, visit www.frostburgsports.com.
