DAYTON —
Sammy Sass delivered a walk-off homer over the left field wall in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting the Wright State baseball program to a thrilling 10-8 win over Oakland on Saturday afternoon at Nischwitz Stadium.
The Raiders improved to 11-10 overall and 3-1 against Horizon League opponents with their fifth victory in a row. Wright State and Oakland (8-11, 2-2 HL) will conclude the three-game series with a noon doubleheader (both nine-inning games) on Sunday, March 26.
In total, the back-and-forth slugfest featured 15 extra-base hits, five lead changes, and five ties. Five different players homered between the two teams.
Wright State finished with 13 hits (seven for extra bases), plating runs in the last three innings.
Jay Luikart led the way by going 3-for-5 at the plate with a two-run homer and three runs scored.
Gehrig Anglin batted 2-for-4 with a two-run roundtrip and a walk, while
Andrew Patrick doubled twice and drove in one run.
Patrick Fultz also stood out with an RBI single and an RBI double over four plate appearances. Sass' game-sealing two-homer in the ninth was his lone hit of the game.
Jay Luikart (1-0) earned the winning decision after allowing one unearned run on two hits in the top of the ninth. Starting pitcher
Jake Shirk was tagged for five runs on nine hits in 5.2 innings of work, while
Chris Gallagher tossed a scoreless eighth inning out of the pen.
The Golden Grizzlies opened play with three runs on four hits in the top of the first inning, punctuated by a two-run homer off the bat of Ian Cleary. However, WSU tied the game at 3-all in the bottom of the frame, as Anglin drove in two runs on his fifth homer of the season, and Fultz scored
Boston Smith from first on a two-out RBI single.
Oakland took the lead back with two runs in the top of the second, but WSU's Patrick doubled with two outs and scored on a home run by Luikart to knot the game at 5-all in the bottom of the second.
Both teams scored twice in the seventh inning, leading to a 7-7 tie. Patrick plated
Luke Arnold on an RBI double and came around to score on a throwing error in the frame for the Raiders.
Wright State claimed its first lead of the conference matchup in the following frame on an RBI double off the bat of Fultz. However, Oakland tied the game at 8-all with two outs in the top of the ninth on a run-scoring double by Jared Miller.
Luikart reached base on an infield single with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but WSU's next batter struck out swinging. Sass then stepped to the plate, delivering a walk-off homer on the first pitch he saw.
