Marshall University Athletics
Saturday, March 7
Huntington, W.Va.
11:00 AM
Marshall University
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Photo by: MattPendleton
Pitching Leads Herd Baseball to Saturday Sweep Over Akron
3/7/2020 6:43:00 PM | Baseball
Martin, Choban earn wins in starts
HUNTINGTON, W.Va.—Marshall baseball rode dominant pitching to earn a doubleheader sweep, 3-1 and 2-1, Saturday over Akron at the Kennedy Center.
The Thundering Herd improved to 3-9-1 with the wins. Akron fell to 0-10.
"We still have our best baseball as a group coming up," head coach Jeff Waggoner said following the second game. "I thought our guys did a good job preparing this week, our preparation was really good. We played good team baseball all-around, we're still not playing our best but if we continue to play good team baseball we're going to continue to get a lot better and have a chance to win more games.
"Our pitching was really good, especially starters Wade Martin and Brady Choban. They did what starters are supposed to do and gave us quality starts."
Game One: Marshall 3, Akron 1
Redshirt senior Wade Martin matched a career-high in strikeouts with 11. His mark tied his career-high set back on April 1, 2017 against Middle Tennessee. He threw a season-high 6.2 innings, which is his longest outing since prior to his 2018 season-ending injury.
As Martin (1-3) shined (W, 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 SO), the Thundering Herd offensive struggled against Akron starter Jackson Hickert, who pitched a complete game. Marshall's offense woke up in the third inning with a Jaren Lovely double, scoring Daniel Cruz, who reached base with one of his three walks across both games.
In the top of the fourth, Akron hit a solo homer off Martin for his lone blemish, but would not lead for long. Sophomore Kyle Schaefer's RBI groundout scored Jordon Billups for the latter's first run batted in for the season.
After Cruz walked again, he purposely got into a rundown between first and second base, which allowed Zach Gardiner to cross the plate before Cruz was tagged out for the third out.
From there it was all the Marshall pitching staff, as Nick Jodway was first in relief for Martin, and struck out his lone batter faced after he inherited a pair of base runners.
Seniors D'Andre Knight and Michael Guerrero each allowed just one hit in 1.0 innings of relief each. Guerrero struck out a batter to close the game and earn his second save of the season.
Doubles by Lovely and Gardiner were the lone hits of the first game for Marshall, and Cruz notably had three plate appearances without an at-bat, drawing two walks and a sacrifice bunt.
Game Two: Marshall 2, Akron 1
The pitcher's duel extended to the second game, as sophomore Brady Choban (1-2) earned his first career collegiate win, pitching a career-high 6.0 innings. He allowed one earned run on four hits, striking out six batters, which matched his career-high (2/23/19 vs. Iona).
He was followed up in relief by junior Robert Kwiatkowski, who extended his team-best scoreless and hitless streak to 7.0 innings. He struck out five Zips, and over his past three appearances and throughout this 7.0 inning scoreless streak, he has struck out 10 batters compared to zero walks.
After Akron struck for its only run in the top of the second, three singles in the bottom half of the inning from Zach Inskeep, Jordon Billups and Zach Gardiner, the last of which was an RBI to score Inskeep, tied the contest.
Marshall's winning run came in the fifth inning off a bases-loaded sac fly from Luke Edwards, which scored Ryan
Leitch who led the inning off with a single to center field.
Like the first game, the second ended with a strikeout, this time by Kwiatkowski.
Inskeep, Gardiner and Peter Hutzal each accounted for two of the nine total hits for Marshall in the second game.
The two teams meet for a doubleheader once again Sunday with first pitch set for 11 a.m. Freshman Cody Sharp is expected to make his first-career collegiate start in the first game.
Sunday Schedule, Projected Starters
Sunday, 11 a.m.
Cody Sharp (1-0, 1.17) vs. Taed Heydinger (0-2, 10.50)
Sunday, 3 p.m.
TBA vs. TBA
#RiseAsOne
For all of the latest information on the Marshall baseball team and coverage from this weekend's series against Akron, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdBaseball, on Instagram at HerdBSB, and at www.herdzone.com.
To follow all Thundering Herd sports and get live stats, schedules, and free live audio, download the Marshall Athletics App for iOS or Android!
The Thundering Herd improved to 3-9-1 with the wins. Akron fell to 0-10.
"We still have our best baseball as a group coming up," head coach Jeff Waggoner said following the second game. "I thought our guys did a good job preparing this week, our preparation was really good. We played good team baseball all-around, we're still not playing our best but if we continue to play good team baseball we're going to continue to get a lot better and have a chance to win more games.
"Our pitching was really good, especially starters Wade Martin and Brady Choban. They did what starters are supposed to do and gave us quality starts."
Game One: Marshall 3, Akron 1
Redshirt senior Wade Martin matched a career-high in strikeouts with 11. His mark tied his career-high set back on April 1, 2017 against Middle Tennessee. He threw a season-high 6.2 innings, which is his longest outing since prior to his 2018 season-ending injury.
As Martin (1-3) shined (W, 6.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 SO), the Thundering Herd offensive struggled against Akron starter Jackson Hickert, who pitched a complete game. Marshall's offense woke up in the third inning with a Jaren Lovely double, scoring Daniel Cruz, who reached base with one of his three walks across both games.
In the top of the fourth, Akron hit a solo homer off Martin for his lone blemish, but would not lead for long. Sophomore Kyle Schaefer's RBI groundout scored Jordon Billups for the latter's first run batted in for the season.
After Cruz walked again, he purposely got into a rundown between first and second base, which allowed Zach Gardiner to cross the plate before Cruz was tagged out for the third out.
From there it was all the Marshall pitching staff, as Nick Jodway was first in relief for Martin, and struck out his lone batter faced after he inherited a pair of base runners.
Seniors D'Andre Knight and Michael Guerrero each allowed just one hit in 1.0 innings of relief each. Guerrero struck out a batter to close the game and earn his second save of the season.
Doubles by Lovely and Gardiner were the lone hits of the first game for Marshall, and Cruz notably had three plate appearances without an at-bat, drawing two walks and a sacrifice bunt.
Game Two: Marshall 2, Akron 1
The pitcher's duel extended to the second game, as sophomore Brady Choban (1-2) earned his first career collegiate win, pitching a career-high 6.0 innings. He allowed one earned run on four hits, striking out six batters, which matched his career-high (2/23/19 vs. Iona).
He was followed up in relief by junior Robert Kwiatkowski, who extended his team-best scoreless and hitless streak to 7.0 innings. He struck out five Zips, and over his past three appearances and throughout this 7.0 inning scoreless streak, he has struck out 10 batters compared to zero walks.
After Akron struck for its only run in the top of the second, three singles in the bottom half of the inning from Zach Inskeep, Jordon Billups and Zach Gardiner, the last of which was an RBI to score Inskeep, tied the contest.
Marshall's winning run came in the fifth inning off a bases-loaded sac fly from Luke Edwards, which scored Ryan
Leitch who led the inning off with a single to center field.
Like the first game, the second ended with a strikeout, this time by Kwiatkowski.
Inskeep, Gardiner and Peter Hutzal each accounted for two of the nine total hits for Marshall in the second game.
The two teams meet for a doubleheader once again Sunday with first pitch set for 11 a.m. Freshman Cody Sharp is expected to make his first-career collegiate start in the first game.
Sunday Schedule, Projected Starters
Sunday, 11 a.m.
Cody Sharp (1-0, 1.17) vs. Taed Heydinger (0-2, 10.50)
Sunday, 3 p.m.
TBA vs. TBA
#RiseAsOne
For all of the latest information on the Marshall baseball team and coverage from this weekend's series against Akron, follow the Herd on Twitter @HerdBaseball, on Instagram at HerdBSB, and at www.herdzone.com.
To follow all Thundering Herd sports and get live stats, schedules, and free live audio, download the Marshall Athletics App for iOS or Android!
---HerdZone.com---
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Martin, Wade (1-3)
L: HICKERT, Jackson (0-1)
S: Guerrero, Michael (2)
Batting:
HR: PHILLIPS, Brenton 1
RBI: PHILLIPS, Brenton 1
Base Running:
RUNS: PHILLIPS, Brenton 1
Batting:
2B: Lovely, Jaren 1 ; Gardiner, Zach 1
RBI: Lovely, Jaren 1 ; Schaefer, Kyle 1
SH: Blanton, Geordon 1 ; Cruz, Daniel 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Billups, Jordon 1 ; Gardiner, Zach 1 ; Cruz, Daniel 1
CS: Cruz, Daniel 1
HBP: Billups, Jordon 1
Game Leaders
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0
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AB
4
R
0
H
0
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
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