THE CULTURE GYRE 

            Electric. No other word could describe the magic that occurred for the Wayne State Warrior Baseball program during the final two days of the GLIAC conference tournament.

            Wayne State’s tournament run began Thursday May 8, at Jackson Field in Lansing, home of the Lansing Lugnuts, the High-A affiliate for the (Insert City Here) Athletics. There, the Warriors were tasked with a familiar opponent, the Parkside Rangers, who they split a weekend series against just a few days prior. The game got underway quickly. The Warriors put up a 5-run first inning and didn’t look back, securing the Game One victory on the backs of three separate 2-RBI performances from Caleb Sanders, Mason McGuire, and Jacoby Dale. Locking down the save was world-famous closer Ethan Getting. The win over Parkside guaranteed a matchup against a strong Grand Valley team the next evening.

            Things took a turn for the worse Friday night against the Lakers. The Warriors sent arguably their best starter to the mound in Gabe Nazelli, but Grand Valley came ready to hit, tagging Nazelli for 5 ER on 10 hits while the Warrior offense lay dormant against the Lakers' pitching staff, mustering only 4 hits. While this didn’t mark the end of the double-elimination tournament, the loss meant that the Warriors would have to win out for a chance at the title.

            Saturday rolled around, and a pair of do-or-die games lay ahead for the Warriors. Davenport won a thrilling extra innings battle against Grand Valley in walk-off style in the first game of the day. With the Davenport win, Grand Valley would be the opponent for the winner of the midday matchup between Wayne State and Saginaw Valley.

             It would be hard to top the exhilarating events that took place before Wayne State was even set to play, but their game did not disappoint.

             The Warriors started game three hot once again, with a four-run first inning powered by a towering blast off the bat of Aidan Arbogast, and a strong five innings from starter Nick Baker. Things were looking good

for the Warriors after 7 innings. But the Cardinals wouldn’t make it easy, as their four-run 8th inning forced hero closer Ethan Getting into the game. Getting escaped the 8th with a one-run lead before coming back out in the 9th to secure the victory for the Warriors, sending Saginaw home and Wayne State to the evening game against Grand Valley.

            With a now-beleaguered pitching staff, the Warriors needed somebody to step up and provide enough innings so as not to burn any other pitchers. One man did just that. In what may be his last ever start, Keegan Pulford-Thorpe pitched the game of his life. Carrying a no-hitter into the 6th inning, it was clear he had it all working that night. Given his career-longest outing spanned just 4.2 innings, nobody could have predicted the eight innings of a 3-hit, 1-run ball Pulford-Thorpe tossed in this gem of an outing. However, with the Warrior offense only scoring a single run of their own in the fifth inning, extra innings would have to decide the fate of these teams’ seasons.

A leadoff walk by Reagan Paulina to start the tenth inning finally pushed the Lakers to remove their starting pitcher after 128 pitches. With a runner on first, the Warriors strung together three straight singles, two coming on bunts, to score two runs and send it to the bottom of the 10th up 3-1. After coming in the inning prior, the game once again fell into the hands of none other than Ethan Getting, who had already thrown just a few hours before and was looking to pick up his second save of the day. After getting two quick outs, two Lakers reached base, and Grand Valley had runners on the corners with two outs in the 10th. Then, on a 0-2 count, Getting whizzed a fastball by the last Grand Valley hitter, and secured a spot in the conference tournament final against regular season champions, Davenport, the next day.

              Mother’s Day arrived with the Warriors still miles away from home, but closer and closer to the title. With everything on the line, Game One starter Miles Jamieson took the mound once again against Davenport and 

put on a slider clinic, throwing a mind-boggling 101 sliders out of his 105 pitches and exiting the game after six innings with only 3 hits, 2 ER, and the Warriors up 4-2. An additional run for Davenport would score in the seventh inning, but the Warriors held strong going into the ninth, still up a single run. Who else but Ethan Getting would be brought into the game to shut things down for the Warriors and send it to Game Two with the title on the line. Madness would ensue, however, as the first two baserunners for the Panthers would reach to start the inning, leaving runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Thankfully, a hard groundball to third resulted in a fielder's choice and the runner on third being tagged out. But nothing would come easy. As Getting walked the next runner the controversy began. On a pitch where the Wayne State dugout and most of the fans presumed it was a foul-tip back to the screen, the home plate umpire declared it was, in fact, a passed ball, so the tying run came in to score from 3rd base. Warriors head coach Ryan Kelley was so irate about the call, he had no issues getting ejected from the contest and giving the umpire crew his money’s worth before exiting the stadium.

              Getting struck out the next two batters and worked another scoreless frame in the bottom of the 10th, bringing his total on the tournament to six innings without an earned run across four separate games - a truly heroic performance. But as is the case with all good things, they must come to an end. In the bottom of the 11th frame, a leadoff HBP and one-out walk put two runners on. Then, Gabe Nazelli, who was facing his first batter, let a slider catch too much of the plate, and the Panthers’ leadoff batter deposited the ball over the right field wall, walking off the Warriors and ending their season in dramatic fashion.

            With the season wrapped up for the Warriors, I will release my season recap soon, thank you all for being a part of this Warriors season, and I will see you all next year.