ADRIAN, Mich. -- The Siena Heights baseball team opened WHAC play with a doubleheader sweep of Cornerstone on Friday at the McLaughlin Baseball Field. The Saints earned wins of 8-3 and 8-5 over the Golden Eagles.
The Saints will return to action on Saturday with a 1 p.m. WHAC doubleheader at Concordia.
Game one: Siena Heights 8, Cornerstone 3
The Saints blew the game open with a six-run fifth inning; the big knock was a grand slam by Kenny Layman.
Layman and Adam Wilding (double) had two-hit games for the Saints (8-10, 2-0). Matt Love scored three runs. Cole VanWasshenova tripled.
Winning pitcher Chase Molnar started on the hill, allowing three runs on eight hits in 5 1/3 innings. He recorded seven strikeouts without walking or hitting a batter. Reliever Garret Smith worked 1 2/3 scoreless frames.
Love and VanWassenova drew bases-loaded walks in the fifth inning, helping SHU take a 3-1 lead before Layman created some distance with his slam.
The Golden Eagles pulled within 7-3 in the sixth. VanWasshenova added some insurance via RBI triple during the bottom half for the game's final run.
Game two: Siena Heights 8, Cornerstone 5
The Saints played catchup the entire contest before pulling in front on an RBI single by Layman in the eighth. Jacob Jackson added a two-run single and then Love pitched the ninth to earn the save.
Christian Jabiro and Shilo Bernal Jr. threw scoreless seventh and eighth innings. Bernal earned the win.
Gino Hutchinson batted 4-for-5 with two doubles and two runs for SHU. VanWasshenova (triple, double), Layman and Wilding (triple) had two-hit games. VanWasshenova and Layman finished with two RBI each.
The Saints faced deficits of 1-0, 2-1, 4-2 and 5-3 before knotting the game up at 5-all in the sixth.
VanWasshenova had an RBI triple in the third and Wilding scored on a wild pitch in the fourth. Layman had an RBI single in the fifth.
Down 5-3 in the sixth, the Saints evened the score with an RBI single by Brayden Hill and RBI double by VanWasshenova.
In the eighth, Layman connected for a two-out single to plate Hutchinson with the go-ahead run. Jackson then provided his two-run insurance hit.
