The Wright State baseball team split a pair of games against Valparaiso to open Horizon League play on Friday evening at the Athletes in Action Complex. WSU collected their third walk-off victory in the second game, winning 8-7 in ten innings, after dropping the first game 5-4.

WSU fell behind early in the first game of the evening, as Valpo jumped out to a 6-0 lead as they tallied a pair of first inning runs against WSU starting pitcher Michael Meintel. They added four runs, three earned, in the fourth inning as they benefitted from a pair of WSU errors in the field.

WSU would chip away with a two-run home run from Jeremy Hamilton and RBI's from John Kopilchack and R.J. Gundolff. The Raiders tallied a run in the eighth inning, but couldn't push the tying run across the plate with the bases loaded in the inning.

The Raiders went in order in the ninth inning and dropped their Horizon League home opener for the fourth straight season. WSU was led by Kopilchack, who collected a pair of doubles and was hit by a pitch. Hamilton and Justin Parker each reached base twice in game one.

In game two, Valpo again grabbed the early lead in the first inning. The Crusaders collected an unearned run in the opening frame, followed by a WSU run in their half of the inning to tie the game at 1-1.

WSU took a lead on a strange play in the third inning, scoring three runs on a ball that never left the infield. With the bases loaded, Jeff Mercer hit a ground ball to third base. As the WSU runner came home, the throw went wide of the catcher to the backstop and allowed the runner at third and second to score. Then as the catcher threw the ball back to the pitcher, the ball squirted away and the runner from first, now on third, scampered home to give WSU a 4-1 lead.

After Valparaiso knotted the game at 4-4 in the fifth inning, WSU responded with three more runs in their half of the fifth inning. Kopilchack drove in the only RBI of the inning as two runs scored as Gundolff reached on an error by the Valpo shortstop.

With the Green and Gold leading 7-4, Valpo (5-15, 1-1 HL) would again capitalize on sloppy defense by the Raiders, tallying three more unearned runs to tie the contests at 7-7.

The two teams would play the next two innings scoreless before WSU loaded the bases in the tenth inning. With two outs in the inning, Gerald Ogrinc drove the pitch into right-center field, plating the game winning run.

Five players collected two hits in the contest and Hamilton was two-for-two with three walks, two intentional, and drove in a run in the game two victory. Of WSU's eight runs, only three of those came via RBI and of the 15 runs in the contest only six of them were earned.

It was the third walk-off win this season for the Raiders and evened their Horizon League record at 1-1 and the Green and Gold are now 4-11 overall this season.

The two teams will meet Saturday to finish the three-game Horizon League series at the Athletes in Action complex in Xenia, with first pitch set for 5:00.