OXFORD, Ohio – Facing a Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponent for the first time in 2023, the Oakland Golden Grizzlies defeated the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks, 12-9, on Tuesday, March 21 at Hayden Park, extending their win streak to three games.
Matching their longest win streak of the season thus far, the Golden Grizzlies improve to 8-10 (2-1 Horizon League), while Miami (OH) drops to 4-17 (2-4 MAC).
The sixth of seven Oakland pitchers on the afternoon, junior right-hander
Ben Paugh worked the seventh and eighth innings, allowing one run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts, and picked up his first win of the season and the sixth of his career, while redshirt senior righty
Brett Hagen turned in a scoreless ninth for his first save in a Golden Grizzly uniform.
Giving up three runs, only one of which was earned, on five hits with five strikeouts in 3.1 innings out of the bullpen, Uniontown, Ohio freshman left-hander Nick Vardavas took the loss for the RedHawks, dropping him to 1-3.
With half the runs coming on a bases-clearing triple by freshman center fielder
Reggie Bussey, the first three-base hit of his career, Oakland scored six times in the top of the first.
Miami (OH) immediately cut the deficit in half with three runs in the bottom of the first, but the Golden Grizzlies stretched the lead back out to five, 8-3, with a pair of runs in the second on a double by senior designated hitter
Ian Cleary and a single off the bat of redshirt senior third baseman
Luke Malmanger.
Scoring once in the third and twice in both the fourth and fifth, the RedHawks had the Oakland lead down to one, 9-8, in the fifth and tied the contest on a home run by Zionsville, Indiana sophomore catcher David Novak in the seventh.
Pinch-hitting for sophomore second baseman
Peter Jelenic with two on and one out in the eighth, fellow sophomore
Kevin Krill ended up providing the game-winning run by plating Cleary with a single to right for his second RBI of the season and his first hit since March 5.
The Golden Grizzlies scored another run in the eighth to up the margin to two, 11-9, and registered their final run of the game in the ninth when sophomore left fielder
Drew Collins scored on a wild pitch.
Led by a 3-4 performance from Cleary, who is 6-7 (.857) over the last two games, Oakland recorded a season-best 15 hits, with Collins, redshirt senior shortstop
Thomas Green, sophomore right fielder
John Lauinger and Malmanger all collecting two hits.
STATISTICAL NOTES
- All three of Cleary's hits Tuesday were doubles, giving him five this season, the third-most on the team behind graduate student first baseman Gabe Lux's eight and Green's six
- Bussey is the third Golden Grizzly with a triple in 2023, joining Collins (two) and Green
- Cleary had two RBI Tuesday and Lux had one, giving them eight apiece, tied for third-best on the club
- Giving him a team-leading five in six attempts this season, Collins stole two bases Tuesday. Jelenic, who also swiped a bag against Miami (OH), has four and four Oakland players have three each
- Paugh is the sixth Golden Grizzly pitcher to record a win, along with junior Brandon Decker (three), senior Travis Densmore, Hagen, redshirt senior Bryce Konitzer and graduate student Christian Stelling
- Joining Paugh, Hagen is the second Oakland pitcher with a save this season
GRIZZVISION WITH HEAD COACH JORDON BANFIELD
UP NEXT
Their second Horizon League series of the year, the Golden Grizzlies will head to Nischwitz Stadium in Fairborn, Ohio for a three-game set with the Wright State Raiders, who possess an identical 8-10 (2-1) record, from Friday-Sunday, March 24-26.
Friday and Sunday will be broadcast live on ESPN+ (subscription required).
