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 Joel Whitbeck struck out six of the eight batters he faced. |
May 14, 2005
DETROIT - The WSU baseball team was eliminated from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament with a 4-2 loss to the No. 4 seed Findlay Oilers on Saturday morning. The game, which began Friday at 5 p.m., continued Saturday morning at the WSU Baseball Field. Wayne State now awaits word on an NCAA Regional bid on May 19-22 at a site to be determined.
The top-seeded Warriors found themselves down 3-0 in the third when junior Kurt Kieleszewski (Macomb, Mich.) hit a lead-off single to left center. A sac bunt and wild pitch moved Kieleszewski over to third to set up a Bobby Marten (Allen Park, Mich.) RBI.
Kieleszewski got things rolling again in the fifth with a triple to the gap in right center. He then scored on a Jason Chapieski (Windsor, Ont.) grounder to short.
The game was then halted with one out in the bottom of the sixth due to heavy rain and lightning on Friday. When play resumed on Saturday morning, Warrior senior Joel Whitbeck (DeWitt, Mich.) was solid on the mound through 2.2 innings as he struck out six of the eight batters he faced and got a ground out and fly out before Steve Squires (Kalamazoo, Mich.) forced two fly balls to close out the ninth.
But offensively, Wayne State couldn't muster any more runs as it had two runners on base in the seventh and had just one hit the final two innings.
Kieleszewski and Kevin Kadrofske (Roseville, Mich.) were each 2-for-4 at the plate against the Oilers. Caleb Meyer picked up the win, going 5.1 innings on Friday. He gave up five hits and struck out four. WSU sophomore Dan Barnes (Grand Ledge, Mich.) suffered the loss (4-3) in 2.2 innings of work.
