Raiders advance to College World Series regional final

Junior Jack Van Horn led the Raiders to the Champaign regional finals by shutting out Notre Dame over eight innings, allowing just five singles and two walks while striking out six.

After waiting over 21 years for its second all-time Division I NCAA regional win, the Wright State baseball team advanced to Monday’s regional finals with a 4-0 win over Notre Dame Sunday night, May 31, in Champaign, Ill.

Earlier in the day, the Raiders stayed alive in the tournament by defeating Ohio University 8-3.

Wright State (43-16) will face #6 nationally ranked and host Illinois (49-8-1) for the regional title on Monday, June 1, at 2 p.m. Eastern.

Today’s game can be watched live on ESPN3 and online on Watch ESPN.

The Raiders will have to defeat the Fighting Illini twice to claim the title and advance to the College World Series Super Regional.

The Raiders opened the scoring against Notre Dame with a run in the second. With one out, Mitch Roman singled to right and advanced to third one out later on Matt Morrow’s hit to right. John Brodner then hit a slow roller up the middle that he beat out for an infield hit as Roman scored the first run.

Wright State made it 2-0 in the fourth and, again, Roman started the rally, this time with a double to left. After advancing to third on a Ryan Fucci bunt, Roman scored as the Irish mishandled Morrow’s grounder to first.

Roman was at it again in the fifth, this time driving in the runs instead of starting the rally. Sean Murphy led off with a hit up the middle and went to third two outs later as Gabe Snyder doubled to the fence in right. Roman then delivered a two-run single up the middle on a 1-2 pitch to extend the margin to 4-0.

It was left to Jack Van Horn from there, and the junior righty did not disappoint as he blanked Notre Dame over eight innings, allowing just five singles and two walks while striking out six.

It was just Van Horn’s second start of the season, the first being a four-inning stint in the Horizon League championship game on May 23 in Whiting, Ind.

Andrew Elliott closed it out by retiring the Irish in order in the ninth.

Roman finished with three hits, two RBI and two runs scored to pace the Raider offense.

Wright State entered the day with just one NCAA Division I tournament win in its history, that coming on May 27, 1994.

Raiders defeat Ohio in regionals

But the Raiders picked up two more wins in a matter of hours on Sunday by first defeating Ohio in an elimination game earlier in the day.

Senior outfielder Mark Fowler had three hits and three RBI in the Raiders’ 8-3 win over Ohio University on Sunday.

The game, which began on May 30 and was suspended due to rain, saw the Bobcats open the scoring with a pair of runs in the first.

Wright State answered with five runs in the top of the second, a rally that started with Gabe Snyder drawing a walk after being down in the count 0-2. Ryan Fucci followed by clubbing a two-run home run to straight away center, his 15th of the season, to tie the game.

Wright State then put two runners in scoring position as Matt Morrow reached on error, John Brodner was hit by a pitch and Andrew McCafferty moved both runners up with a bunt. It looked like a bad break for the Raiders as a grounder up the middle by Sean Murphy was kick saved by the pitcher for an out as Morrow scored, but Mark Fowler followed with a two-run homer to left center, his sixth of the year, to make it 5-2.

Rain started to fall in the second inning and the game was halted at the completion of the inning. The teams then waited through a four-hour delay before the game was suspended and resumed Sunday.

Wright State added to the lead with a two-out run in the fourth as Murphy walked and scored all the way from first on a hit-and-run double down the left field line by Fowler.

The margin grew to 7-2 in the eighth on consecutive singles by Brodner, McCafferty and Murphy, and the Raiders added another in the ninth as Michael Timm was hit by a pitch, went to third on a Snyder hit and scored as Fucci dropped a short single into right.

After giving up two runs in the first, Jesse Scholtens (7-4) took control from there as the junior right-hander limited Ohio to no runs and five hits over his final seven innings of work, walking one and striking out three. Logan Bair pitched the ninth for Wright State.