DAYTON — The Wright State baseball program clinched its fifth consecutive Horizon League regular season title as the Raiders defeated Milwaukee 9-5 on Sunday afternoon at Nischwitz Stadium.
WSU improved to 34-18 overall and 21-6 in conference play with its ninth-straight win and fifth of the week, punctuated by a sweep over the Panthers (22-27, 10-16 HL). The Raiders will host the 2023 Horizon League Baseball Championship as the top seed at Nischwitz Stadium from May 24-27, with the League's six schools represented in a double-elimination bracket.
Wright State found the scoreboard in six different frames, finishing the contest with 11 hits and six walks.
Luke Arnold paced the Raiders at the plate, as he batted 2-for-3 with a rare three-run inside-the-park home run and two runs scored.
Drew Baker drove in two runs on his first collegiate homer and a sacrifice fly. The trio of
Sammy Sass,
Gehrig Anglin, and
Jay Luikart added two hits and an RBI, while
Andrew Patrick notched a double, two walks, and two runs.
Starting pitcher
Luke Stofel (4-4) earned the winning decision after striking out five batters in six innings of work. He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before allowing four runs on four hits and a walk in the frame.
Tristan Haught tossed three shutout innings, giving up just three hits and no walks en route to his third save of the year.
Sass was responsible for WSU's first two runs of the game, as he scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the second and plated Patrick on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third.
The Raiders grew their edge to 4-0 in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Baker and an RBI single off the bat of Luikart. Sass and
Boston Smith reached base on a single and a walk in the bottom of the fifth and scored on Arnold's inside-the-park home run to left center that bounced over MKE's diving center fielder.
Milwaukee reached the scoreboard with four runs on four hits and a walk in the top of the sixth inning to reduce its deficit to 7-4. Anglin cushioned the Raider edge to 8-4 with an RBI single in the bottom of the frame, but MKE made the score 8-5 with an RBI knock of its own in the top half of the seventh.
Baker pushed WSU's lead to 9-5 with his first collegiate homer in the bottom of the eighth inning. Haught continued his dominant stretch out of the bullpen as he blanked the Panthers in the top of the ninth to seal the Raider win.
Wright State will conclude its regular season with a three-game series at Youngstown State from May 18-20.
