COLUMBUS, Ohio - With the regular season winding down, the Walsh Cavaliers baseball team traveled to Columbus to face the Ohio Dominican Panthers over the weekend in a four-game Great Midwest series on Friday (April 23) and Sunday (April 25). Walsh fell in three of the four games on the road as they return home with an 22-11 overall record while being 19-9 in the conference. 

On Friday, Walsh dropped both ends of the doubleheader by scores of 9-8 and 9-5. The Cavaliers and the Panthers split the Sunday contests as Ohio Dominican walked off in game one 3-2 and Walsh won the nightcap 9-1. 

Friday 4/23

Game 1 (L, 9-8 in 9 innings)

• Walsh jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first two innings. Jacob Beachy and Cam Kaiser each had RBI singles in a two-run first inning. Joey Holiga added a three-run home run one inning later as the Cavaliers build a 5-0 advantage. Walsh plated two runs in the fifth inning for a 7-0 lead on a RBI single from Davis Burick and a safety squeeze by Jared Lieberman. Ohio Dominican took an 8-7 lead after six innings with four runs in each of the fifth and sixth innings. Holiga tied the game at eight in the seventh with a RBI double. The Panthers got the winning run in the eighth inning on a RBI single. Walsh fell 9-8 in the first game. 
• Walsh pounded out 15 hits with five hits having multi-hit games. Holiga had three hits and four RBI while Andrew Czech, Kaiser, Alec Debruler and Lieberman each had two hits. Czech walked twice as he reached base four times in total. 

Game 2 (L, 9-5 in 7 innings)

• After Ohio Dominican scored first in the bottom of the first, Walsh tied the game in the third inning with a RBI single by Czech. The Panthers regained the 2-1 lead in the fourth inning and Walsh quickly answered back on a sacrifice fly by Brenden Spaulding. A seven-run sixth inning opened the 9-2 lead for ODU. Spaulding brought the Cavaliers within 9-5 with a three-run bomb in the seventh inning but the rally was not enough. 
• Czech, Spaulding, Holiga and Kaiser all had two hits, accounting for eight of Walsh's ten hits. Spaulding drove in four of the Cavaliers' five runs. 

Sunday 4/25

Game 1 (L, 3-2 in 7 innings)

• Ohio Dominican started the scoring in the fourth inning but Walsh took the lead a half inning later. Burick tied the game with a solo blast to left field. Spaulding took the 2-1 lead on a sacrifice fly to right field. The Panthers tied the game in the bottom of the fifth and walked off with a 3-2 win in the bottom of the seventh. 
• Five different players tallied one hits with Burick having the only extra-base hit. Czech walked twice to reach base two times in the contest. 
• Brant Alazaus allowed two runs on six hits in six innings of work. He struck out ten batters in the contest with one walk. 

Game 2 (W, 9-1 in 9 innings)

• Walsh used three swings of the bat in the third inning to kick off the offense. Holiga, Czech and Spaulding went back-to-back-to-back as Walsh led 3-0. A four-run fourth inning lifted Walsh to a 7-0 lead as the game went to the middle innings. Burick doubled home a run before Lieberman added a sacrifice fly. Two more runs scored on wild pitches before the inning was over. A two-run double by Czech in the seventh inning made it 9-0 Walsh. The Panthers scored one run in the bottom of the ninth to close the scoring as Walsh avoided the sweep.                                                  
• Holiga, Czech, Beachy, Kaiser and Burick all had two hits. Czech led all batters with three RBI and Holiga and Czech both walked twice. Holiga scored three runs on his own. 
• Nick Lallathin pitched 5.1 innings of two-hit ball with five walks and four strikeouts. Alex Firsdon tossed 1.2 scoreless innings of relief work while Caleb Canter pitched a perfect eighth inning. 

Walsh will host Mount Vernon Nazarene on Tuesday (April 27) afternoon at 3:00 PM to replace the canceled Akron game. 

-WC-