Wright State eliminated at NCAA Baseball Regional
June 3, 2006
Hawaii 5, Wright State 3Corvallis, OR - After falling behind 5-0 the Wright State baseball team mounted a comeback that fell just short against Hawaii, falling 5-3. The Raiders were propelled by their senior leaders and fought back to bring the tying run into the on-deck circle against the third-seeded Rainbows.
The Rainbows struck in the third inning when WSU starter Erich Schanz walked the leadoff hitter before surrendering an RBI triple to Derek DePree. The next batter sent a fly ball into left field that allowed DePree to scamper home and made the score 2-0.
Hawaii used another sacrifice fly and an RBI double off the bat of Matt Inouye to push their lead to 4-0 after five innings. The Rainbows pushed their lead to 5-0 in the sixth inning when leadoff batter Robbie Wilder took Schanz deep to right field for his second homer of the season.
Hawaii's Ian Harrington held the Raiders hitless until the fifth inning when Justin Wilson singled up middle. The Raiders finally scored in the seventh inning when Aaron Garcia singled and moved to third on an Amin Abusaleh singled up the middle. The next batter was Justin Wilson who grounded into a double play and allowed Garcia to cross the plate to cut the lead to 5-1.
Wright State used three more pitchers after Schanz, who threw 5.2 innings and allowed five earned runs with seven strikeouts, to close out the game for WSU. Schanz falls to 6-4 overall with the loss as he ends his junior campaign with an ERA of 4.08.
The Raiders mounted their rally in the ninth inning when Dan Biedenharn singled to start the inning and Garcia followed that with his fifth home run of the season to pull the Raiders within two at 5-3. That was as close as the Raiders would get as Harrington would coax a two flyball outs and a ground out to end the game.
The Raiders were led by Garcia who collected two hits, drove in two RBI and scored two runs for the Green and Gold. Four other Raiders all collected a hit in the game and Biedenharn added the only other Raider run in the game.
The Raiders end the season with a 32-27 record as they appeared in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994 and won the Horizon League tournament for the first time since 1995. The winning record was the first for the Green and Gold since 2001 which is the last time they won 30 games in a season.
