Sweep of Oakland Opens Summit League Play for IPFW

Saturday, April 9

Fort Wayne, Ind.

1:30 PM

Purdue Fort Wayne

Oakland

Nick Opitz tossed a complete game in IPFW's Game 1 win over Oakland

Sweep of Oakland Opens Summit League Play for IPFW

4/9/2011 8:00:04 PM | Baseball

Game 1 | Game 2

Fort Wayne, IN - The IPFW baseball team opened Summit League play with a doubleheader sweep of visiting Oakland on Saturday afternoon by the scores of 8-1 and 5-4.

A dominant pitching performance by senior lefthander Nick Optiz and good offensive support highlighted the opener.

Opitz, and Oakland starter Greg Welke put up zeros over the first three innings until the Golden Grizzlies got on the board in the top of the fourth.

Right fielder Aaron Cieslak would walk, steal second and advance to third on a wild pitch. He would come home a batter later on an RBI sac fly by first baseman Aaron Wick.

IPFW got that run back in the bottom of the frame as senior right fielder Nate Thomas singled through the right side of the Grizzlies' infield to chase home first baseman A.J. Christensen.

IPFW broke the game open just an inning later. Welke ran into some control problems, walking the bases loaded. OU brought on reliever Kevin Korkate and he was greeted by and RBI single from shortstop Will Faulkner. Designated hitter Brett Clark followed that up with an RBI single of his own to give the 'Dons a 3-1 lead.

Christensen and left fielder Cody Gailbraith each drove in runs with RBI outs. And then the big blow of the inning, a two run single by Thomas capped a six-run 5th inning.

From there Optiz put it on cruise control. He didn't allow a run the rest of the way. IPFW added one more in the 6th inning to make the final 8-1.

Optiz got the win (2-4) with a complete-game six hitter. He walked two and struck out two.

Welke took the loss for the Golden Grizzlies (1-5). He gave up four runs on three hits in 4.0 innings of work. He walked four and struck out one.

Thomas drove in three runs and was 3-5 in the opener. Faulkner and Galbraith each had a pair of hits.

The nightcap was a decidedly different type of game.

Oakland (5-14, 0-2 SL) tallied first in the 2nd inning on an RBI single by third baseman Mike Carson.

The 'Dons matched that score in the bottom of the third as Faulkner shot a single to center field that plated freshman third baseman Kristian Gayday.

From there, IPFW didn't put together much offense and Oakland scored single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings to hold a 4-1 at the stretch.

But in the bottom of the 7th inning, the IPFW bats came alive. Thomas led off the inning with a walk and advanced to third on a single to second by Gayday. Catcher Brendan Landwehr grounded out to third, but that allowed Thomas to score IPFW's second run.

Second baseman Garrett Segraves kept the inning going with a single to center that moved Gayday to third. With blue and white on the corners, Faulkner came through again with an RBI single to left center. Gayday scored making it 4-3, OU. A passed ball moved Segraves and Faulkner up 90-feet.

Brett Clark did his job, grounding out to the right side of the Oakland infield scoring Segraves. That was the end of the afternoon for OU starter Mark Leichtman. On came reliever Kyle Bobolts. But Bolbolts tossed a wild pitch past catcher Jake Morton that ended up in the screen and Faulkner scampered home with the go-ahead run.

From there, it was reliever Matt Ransbottom who brought it home for the 'Dons. He didn't allow a run over the final two innings for his second win of the season and a sweep for the Mastodons.

Ransbottom tossed 3.0 innings in relief. He gave up just one run on two hits. He fanned two while walking four. IPFW starter Lucas Kesterson worked 6.0 innings. He struck out six and walked one, but did issue three OU runs. (one earned).

Leichtman took the loss (0-2). He was responsible for all five Mastodon runs.

Faulkner was 2-3 in Game 2 with two RBI. Segraves and Gayday also had two base knocks for IPFW.

With the sweep, IPFW improves to 7-16 and 2-0 in league play.

The two teams finish the short series on Sunday at Mastodon Field with a noon doubleheader.

~Dons~