NORTH CANTON, Ohio - The Walsh Cavaliers baseball team battled the Ohio Dominican Panthers and the weather on Thursday (April 7) in a Great Midwest contest at Biery Stadium. 

Walsh fell 8-4 to the Panthers in a contest that elapsed nearly five hours, including a 90-minute lightning delay. The Cavaliers fell to 13-10 overall and 5-5 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. 

Ohio Dominican started the scoring in the first inning on back-to-back base hits as a RBI double pushed the Panthers to a 1-0 lead. In the third inning, the Panthers made it 2-0 on a RBI single. The game remained 2-0 until the bottom of the sixth inning when Walsh erupted for four runs. The first four batters reached in some capacity but created two outs with no runs scored. With two outs, the next three batters created run-scoring opportunities. Austin Marko and Davis Burick both singled home one run and Andrew Morse followed with a two-run single. Walsh took a 4-2 lead as the game shifted towards the final three innings. ODU cut the lead to 4-3 in the top of the seventh inning before lightning created a long delay. After play resumed, Ohio Dominican took a 6-4 lead on a bases loaded double. The Panthers added two more runs in the top of the eighth inning for an 8-4 win. 

Walsh had eight hits in the game, all singles with Cameron Kaiser and Burick each having two hits. 

Drew Saunier allowed two runs in three innings as the starter. Zach Thompson tossed 1.2 innings of scoreless baseball in relief to close the game. 

The series will continue on Sunday (April 10) with a DH starting at 1:00 PM. Thursday's second game was postponed due to weather and could be made up on Monday afternoon. 

-WC-