Rochester, Mich. – Their sixth win in their last seven games, Oakland defeated Youngstown State, 14-1, on Sunday, April 3.
Moving back to .500 at 13-13 on the year and 6-3 in the Horizon League, Sunday's victory represented a program first for the Golden Grizzlies. Since transitioning to the Division I level and becoming a full member of the Summit League in the 2000 season, this is the first time Oakland has begun a campaign with three straight series wins.
The Golden Grizzlies accomplished this by previously taking two of three games from Wright State from March 18-20 and Purdue Fort Wayne on March 25 & 26.
Despite Oakland tying a season-high with 14 runs and piling up 16 hits, Sunday's game actually started out as a pitchers' duel.
Junior right-hander Matt Brosky started for the Penguins and did not allow a hit until redshirt senior right fielder
Brenton Phillips roped a double to left center with one out in the fifth. Apparently, that one hit was all it took to open the floodgates as the next seven Golden Grizzlies also reached base, building up a 5-0 lead.
By the end of the fifth, the lead was up to 6-0 as graduate student second baseman
Brad Goulet came home on a groundout by left-handed-hitting junior designated hitter
Ian Cleary.
Oakland added two more in the sixth on a bases-loaded single by senior left fielder
Michael Stygles and another in the seventh when Phillips ripped his third home run of the year.
Widening the margin to 13-1, freshman third baseman
Brandon Nigh hit a three-run moonshot in the eighth to tie him with Cleary for the team lead in home runs with five.
Remember that pitchers' duel mentioned five paragraphs ago? That was because of Brosky's first 4.1 innings, but also because of
Travis Densmore's efforts.
Making his third start and seventh appearance, the junior left-hander tied a career-high by going seven innings, giving up just one run on five hits. Needing only 95 pitches to record these 21 outs – an average of 13.6 per inning – Densmore walked one, struck out four, and moved his season record to 2-0.
After Densmore's best start of the year was finished, freshman
Aleksei Goldhill and junior
Brandon Deans – both righties – pitched an inning apiece to put a bow on things.
Shaking off an 0-6 in the first two games of the series, catcher
Brandon Heidal, a Horizon League All-Freshman Team selection in 2021, broke out in a big way by recording a career-high four hits, his third multi-knock game of the season.
Up next
Prior to leaving for a three-game road trip against UIC from April 8-10, the Golden Grizzlies will battle the Mid-American Conference's (MAC) Bowling Green Falcons at home on Tuesday, April 5 at 2:30 p.m.
Bowling Green has won four of the seven all-time meetings between the two programs, giving Oakland a chance to even things back up on Tuesday.
