GRANVILLE, W. Va. - The Frostburg State baseball team split an MEC north division doubleheader against Wheeling on Wednesday afternoon at the field of West Virginia University, splitting the series with a 7-0 game one win and a narrow 4-2 loss in game two.

The Bobcats got off to a hot start in game one, as freshman Danny Estrada led off with a double that was followed by a single from senior Bryce Jackson and a walk from junior Trevor Jones to load the bases. Junior Ethan Kiple would then unload on a ball to left-center and clear the wall for a grand slam that put Frostburg up early, 4-0. 

FSU would push three more across in the fifth, as Kiple would lead off with a walk and was followed by a single off the bat of junior Jack Maruskin. Sophomore Justin Jimenez moved both runners up on a sacrifice bunt, allowing senior Jack Lawrence to step up to the plate and slap a single to right field to score both Kiple and Maruskin to push the lead to 6-0. Lawrence would use his savvy base running to steal both second and third and score on an overthrow by the Cardinals catcher to extend the lead to 7-0.

That's all the runs the Bobcats would need, as the pitching staff would blank the Cardinals, only giving up a combined five hits. Sophomore Ben Vok got the start and went three innings giving up only one hit and striking out three. Junior Will Grove would come on in relief and tallied three strikeouts as well in two innings and earned his seventh win of the year as he remains undefeated. Senior Josh Colliflower would come in and slam the door shut as he went two innings of scoreless ball, also contributing three strikeouts.

The bats were quiet in game two, as the Bobcats could only push across two runs against the Cardinals pitching staff. Wheeling took an early 3-2 lead in the first two innings, as the first run for FSU came via home run off the bat of Jones to cut the deficit to 3-1. He was followed the next inning with another bomb, this time off the bat of freshman Christian Shertzer that was his first collegiate blast to bring the Bobcats within one. WU scored an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth and shut down the Frostburg offense over the final two innings to salvage one win from the four-game season series. 

Sophomore Jarek Bacon had another outstanding relief appearance as he was perfect in 1.2 innings of work, striking out two. Maruskin contributed three hits on the day to lead the Bobcat offense. 

With the split, Frostburg moves to 26-8 on the year and Wheeling heads to 13-23. The Bobcats will be back in action Saturday, April 23 at Bob Wells Field as they host West Liberty for a doubleheader scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. For information and updates stay tuned at frostburgsports.com.