BUCKHANNON – The West Virginia Wesleyan baseball team kept their post-season tournament hopes alive with a split today with the Glenville State Pioneers in a Mountain East Conference doubleheader at Hank Ellis Field.
The 'Cats dropped game on by a 13-6 score but rebounded to win the nightcap by a 5-3 score.
With regular-season play wrapping up tomorrow, the 'Cats are still currently on the outside looking in at the MEC post-season tournament that starts this Thursday in Beckley.
West Virginia State has wrapped up the top spot in the MEC South.
Glenville State is second with a 17-13 league mark while Concord is third with a 16-14 mark and Wesleyan is fourth with a 15-15 record. The league will take the top three to the tournament.
Wesleyan and Glenville State play another doubleheader tomorrow at Glenville State at 1 p.m.
For the 'Cats to get into the play-offs, they have no room for error as they have to sweep Glenville State tomorrow.
In game one, Wesleyan took an early lead when Tre Kerns led off with a single, stole second and later scored on a single by Nick Bader.
Glenville State scored three in the top of the third to take a 3-1 lead.
Wesleyan answered with four runs in the bottom of the third that gave them a 5-3 advantage.
John Koon had the big hit in the inning with a one-run triple.
Things went south for Wesleyan after that as Glenville State scored one on a solo home run by Randal Baugher in the top of the fourth and then added three in the fifth and six in the sixth to take a 13-5 lead.
Wesleyan wrapped up the scoring in the bottom of the seventh when Greg Smith doubled and later scored.
The 'Cats had nine hits with Smith collecting two.
James Gainer suffered the loss as he went 4 1/3 innings.
In game two, Wesleyan struck early with three runs in the bottom of the second but Glenville State scored twice in the top of the third to make it a 3-2 contest.
Glenville State tied the game with a run in the top of the sixth inning.
Bader singled home Michael Logsdon in the bottom of the sixth to return the lead to Wesleyan at 4-3.
Koon wrapped up the scoring when he hit a sacrifice fly that scored Smith in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 5-3 game.
Bader had three of Wesleyan's five hits.
Andrew Ornes earned the win going 5 1/3 innings.
Chris Metrick picked up another save tossing a scoreless ninth.
Wesleyan recognized their 10 seniors between games.
They are Nick Jones, Koon, Corey Lynn, Tre Kerns, Kelly Machuca, Logsdon, Ryan Rado, A, Ornes, Mark Demko and Gainer.
The split left Wesleyan with a 24-21 record heading into their finale with Glenville State.
