The Wright State baseball team pounded out eight runs in the first three innings on the way to a 12-2 victory Friday afternoon in the series opener against Youngstown State.
 
The Raiders (5-5, 5-0 HL) and the Penguins (5-8, 3-2 HL) continue the four-game series with a pair of games on Saturday, with game one starting at 12 p.m. ET with game two to follow.
 
For Horizon League doubleheaders throughout the season, the first game will be a 7 inning game with the second game being a 9 inning game. If game one of the doubleheader goes extra innings then game two becomes a 7 inning game.
 
A pair of first inning homers gave the Raiders the lead they would never surrender, first when Tyler Black belted a three-run shot to right field after Wright State's first two batters of the afternoon reached via back-to-back errors. Later in the frame, Alec Sayre connected on a homer of his own, a solo shot to left field.
 
Wright State added three more runs in the second thanks to an RBI single from Quincy Hamilton and a two-run double into the left-center gap from Zane Harris. Damon Dues' RBI single in the third extended the advantage to 7-1 before the Raiders added on in the sixth with Black's second homer of the game, this time a solo shot, and a Sammy Sass RBI double. Wright State finished off the afternoon's scoring in the eighth via a sacrifice fly from Justin McConnell and a single from Cameron Rountree that brought home a run.
 
Raider starter Jake Schrand tossed six innings on the way to his second straight win, allowing four hits and one run – an RBI single in the third – with seven strikeouts. Three Raider relievers combined for the final three frames, allowing one run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts to close out the afternoon.
 
Schrand retired the first six Youngstown State batters in order over the first two innings and also had two separate stretches where he sat down five Penguins in a row.
 
Dues, Black and Harris each had three hits, with Black's four RBI leading the way followed by two runs brought in from Harris via his double. Six other Raiders all had one RBI as the hosts finished with 19 hits and had multi-hit afternoons from six players in the lineup.
 
Youngstown State starter Colin Clark allowed eight runs (five earned) and 11 hits over four innings on the way to the loss, while Dominick Bucko was the lone Penguin with two hits as the team finished with seven overall.