Lakers use long ball to spoil DC’s home opener

DEFIANCE, Ohio – Three home runs by the Wright State-Lake Lakers turned out to be the difference in the Defiance Yellow Jackets 7-3 loss in the first home baseball game of the season on Wednesday.

The unseasonably warm temperatures brought a good crowd out to Craig Rutter Field to see the Yellow Jackets grab an early lead in the first inning. Defiance's second hitter of the home half of the first, Jack Brubaker-Flood (Wolverine Lake, Mich./Walled Lake Central), smacked his first collegiate home run with a solo shot over the right field fence. On the hill for DC, Logan Kunkel (Pickerington, Ohio/Pickerington Central) cruised through the first three innings on just 33 pitches.

In the fourth, WSU-Lake scored three runs in a hurry to take the lead for good. Brady Hobert doubled to left and came home on a single by Noah McEldowney. Two batters later, Nick Hundley cleared the left field fence with the first of his two homers in the game and capped a three-run inning. Four walks issued by Greg Kita (Wickliffe, Ohio/Wickliffe) cost the Jackets two more in the sixth inning, an inning closed out by Zach Stokoe (Canton, Ohio/McKinley). 

The Lakers boosted their lead to 7-1 in the seventh with back-to-back homers by Noah Crawford and Hundley. WSU-Lake's three home runs accounted for five of the team's seven runs.

Defiance's offense spun its wheels until plating two runs in the seventh. Singles by Mitchell Roever (Cincinnati, Ohio/Elder) and Connor Gephart (Lima, Ohio/LCC) were aided by two Laker errors to scrap those scores together. After Brubaker-Flood's homer in the first, Defiance had a pair of runners on base and loaded the sacks in the second before being turned away in each situation. Gunner Gregg (Graytown, Ohio/Oak Harbor) managed the team's lone hit between the second and sixth frames.

The Yellow Jackets fought to the end and had the tying run on deck in the ninth as the Lakers finished off the victory. DC dropped to 0-5 and Wright State-Lake improved to 7-7. The two teams will play again in Celina on March 27 in Celina.

BRINGING THE STING

• Connor Gephart continues to pace the offense with two more hits and a walk. He finished the day 2-for-4 with an RBI.
• Gunner Gregg turned in his second two-hit game of the season with a 2-for-4 afternoon. He also had one of the team's three stolen bases.
• Logan Kunkel took his first losing decision of the season despite holding the Lakers to one hitter over the minimum over the first three frames. He did not walk a batter and struck out a pair.
• John Hammerstein escaped a jam pitching in the fifth inning. After a one-out walk and a single, the right Michigan native delivered a strikeout and inning-ending foul pop up to throw a zero on the board.
• Gabriel Kelly breezed through two scoreless innings in his first career outing. Pitching through the eighth and ninth, the Otsego grad needed just 17 pitches to go six-up, six-down.

UP NEXT

Defiance travels to Judson University for a four-game series over the weekend with doubleheaders on Saturday at Sunday. The first twinbill begins at 2 p.m. in Elgin, Ill. Defiance's next home game is scheduled for Saturday, March 23, which will be the conference opener against Franklin.

-JACKETS-