By Bryce Thompson
On April 20th, the Warriors hosted the Kaskaskia Blue Devils for a doubleheader to finish their GRAC series games. The Warriors split the doubleheader to take the series 2-1, after shutting out the Blue Devils 7-0 on April 18th in Kaskaskia behind Jackson Soucie's complete game shutout.
In Game 1 of the doubleheader, John Legrande started the scoring for the Warriors with a solo homerun to right in the first inning, giving the Warriors a 1-0 lead. In the bottom of the second, Krew Bond scored on a wild pitch to make it 2-0. Patrick Graham made it 3-0 Wabash with an RBI double. Kaskaskia put a run on the board in the top of the third after scoring on a past ball. The lead was cut to two, but Dalton Fiveash had other plans in the bottom of the third and gave Wabash their three run lead back after a solo shot to right. The Warriors led 4-1 after three innings played. We skip ahead to the sixth inning where Kaskaskia made it a 4-2 ballgame after notching another run on a fielders choice. They held Wabash scoreless in the sixth and then the Blue Devils added another run in the seventh to make it 4-3. Neither team scored in the eighth, but Kaskaskia took the lead on a two run double in the top of the nineth, making it a 5-4 game. In the bottom of the 9th, Kasen Parks came into the game as pinch runner. He advanced to second on a sacrafice bunt by Bruce Jellison and then tagged up and moved over to third on a sacrafice fly to center. Down one run with the tying run on third with two outs, Cohl Proctor stepped into the batters box. Proctor delivered in a critcial situation with an RBI single to tie it at 5. The Warriors couldn't bring Proctor around with two outs in the bottom of the nineth, so the game headed to extras. Wabash made easy work of the Blue Devils in the top of the tenth, and then found themselves in a terrible situation. Tied at 5, with two outs in the bottom of the tenth, Richard Bonomolo Jr stepped up to the plate in hopes to keep the game alive. He notched a two out double to keep the Warriors alive. Keaton Mahan drew an intentional walk, giving Sohrab Rezaei the opportunity to play hero. During his at bat, Bonomolo and Mahan advanced on the base path due to a wild pitch. Two pitches later, Rezaei walks it off with a hard hit ground ball to the shortstop, in which he bobbled and Rezaei beat the throw out. Wabash took game one 6-5.
In Game 2, Wabash took the lead in the bottom of the first with a sacrifice fly and then an RBI single to take a 2-0 lead. The Blue Devils tied it in the top of the second with a sacrafice fly and then stole home on a delayed double steal, to make it 2-2. AJ Malzone gave the Warriors the lead back with a solo homerun, making it 3-2. Kaskaskia tied it at 3 with an RBI double in the top of the third. Wabash took the lead back in the bottom of the 4th with an RBI single from Cohl Proctor. The Warriors held onto a 4-3 lead until the top of the seventh. In the seventh, the Blue Devils tied it once more at four with a sacrafice fly. They took a 5-4 lead with an RBI double. The Warrios moved a sacrafice bunt to move a runner to third and followed it up with a sacrafice fly from LeGrande, allowing Parks to score and tying the ball game at five. Since it was doubleheader, game two is only seven innings. Tied at five at the conclusion of the seventh, that means the game headed to extras. The Blue Devils scored in the top of the eighth with a sacrafice fly, making it 6-5. The Warriors had an opportunity to tie it in the bottom half of the inning, but couldn't bring a run across. The Blue Devils took game two 6-5.
Wabash moves to 30-16 on the season with ten games left.