BUCKHANNON — In what was supposed to be a four-game set, the West Virginia Wesleyan College Bobcats battled against the Davis & Elkins College Senators in its final series of the season in one game on Friday and two on Sunday as one game was wiped out by the weather.
It all started in Elkins on Friday for game one and the Bobcats were firing on all cylinders to end its 17-game losing streak.
The Senators started the scoring in the bottom of the first by putting up two runs to take a 2-0 lead.
Wesleyan answered big in the top of the third by tallying six runs with two two-run singles from Devin Johnson and Eddie Rueda, a one-run single from Chris Hulmes, and a one-run double from Thatcher Poteat.
Davis & Elkins diminished the lead to two by scoring two runs in the bottom of the third to make it 6-4.
Wesleyan added some insurance in the top of the fifth and sixth by putting up three runs off a one-run single from Josh Ayala and a two-run single from Poteat to extend the lead to five.
The Senators were only able to answer back with one run in the bottom of the sixth to make it 9-5.
The Bobcats provided a deathly blow by accumulating five runs in the top of the seventh with a sacrifice fly from Ian Donohoe, an one-run single from Ayala, and defensive mistakes which resulted in three runs.
Wesleyan shut the door on Davis & Elkins and took the first game of the series by winning 14-5.
Alex Hernandez got the win for the Bobcats and Dariell Melendez-Perez got the loss.
With rain coming into play, game two was moved to Sunday, May 5 in Buckhannon and shortened the series to three games instead of four.
Wesleyan took an early lead as they scored a combined four runs in the top of the second and third inning off of an RBI from Luke Burner, an RBI double from Matt Turner, and an RBI single from Ayala.
The Senators answered back in the bottom of the fourth with two runs to make it 4-2.
The Bobcats proceeded to put across three runs in the top of the fifth with RBI’s from Poteat and Hulmes and an RBI single from Ayala to increase its lead to five.
Davis & Elkins quickly shortened the lead to three by putting up two runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it 7-4.
Wesleyan added insurance in the top of the seventh by scoring four runs off two RBI singles from Turner and Ayala, and a two-run double from Malik Wood to give them a 11-4 lead.
The Bobcats kept the Senators quiet in the bottom of the seventh to take game two of the series.
Hunter Eplin got the win for Wesleyan and Jake Garret got the loss.
In the final game of the series, Davis & Elkins were on the verge of going winless in its season but answered in a big way.
The Senators scored 12 runs off 13 hits with Marcus Rivera going 2-2 with a three-run homerun and a two-run double and Jett Walters went 3-4 with a grand slam.
The Bobcats fought as hard as they could, but dropped the final game of the series by only putting up seven runs off 12 hits with stand-out performances from Grant Shumaker who went 3-5 with an RBI, Johnson who went 2-3 with three RBI’s, and Kohei Fujishita who went 2-4 with a two-run homerun.
Broderick Rohrbaugh got the loss for Wesleyan and Issac Lane got the win for the Senators.
The Bobcats finished 12-33 to end the season.
