Game 2 Box

Craig Dziedziejko had five hits and drove in nine runs on Saturday.

Mother Nature decided to participate in Saturday’s doubleheader between Marshall and Miami at University Heights.

Marshall took the first game 11-5 before the RedHawks survived a late Herd rally, and increasingly heavy rain, to take the second game 13-10 in 10 innings. The two team will wrap-up the four-game weekend series Sunday with the first pitch slated for 1 p.m.

With the split Marshall is now 14-24 overall on the year and 5-9 in Mid-American Conference play. Miami now stands at 22-19 overall and 9-6 in the MAC.

Marshall sophomore Grant Harper (3-5) turned in one of the more unusual pitching lines of the year in the opening game. The Grayson, Ky., native pitched a complete game, five-hitter against the RedHawks. All five hits for Miami in the game were solo home runs. Harper also recorded five strikeouts in the game, all looking.

After allowing a two-out Mike Galloway homer in the first, Harper looked on as his teammates plated seven runs in the bottom of the inning of Miami’s preseason All-American Chris Leonard (2-3). Craig Dziedziejko, who had a huge day for the Herd, had a two-run double to get Marshall started. Gregg Hiller and Ryan Kobbe followed with run scoring doubles and Homer Renshaw followed with a two-run homer, his first of the year.

Miami continued to chip away with a pair of solo homers in the third from Sam Sellery and Zach Schmidt, and two more in the fifth, from David Cook and Brian Canada. Marshall added three insurance runs in the third, two on another Dziedziejko double, and one in the fifth to secure the win.

The victory snapped Marshall’s six-game losing streak.

Miami jumped out quickly in the second game, as the rain started to fall, with a two-run Michael Carlin homer in the first off Herd starter Rick Suter. Marshall answered quickly when Dziedziejko blasted a two-run shot off Miami starter Billy Kieninger in the bottom of the frame.

Miami built it’s lead to 7-2 through five innings, and then plated three more in the seventh to chase Suter and take a 10-3 lead. Marshall battled back in the late innings, under heavy rain, scoring one in the seventh, two in the eighth and four in the ninth to tie the game at 10-10.

David Colangelo, who was held hitless in his first six at bats of the day, doubled in Mike Koitsopolous in the seventh to start the Marshall rally. The hit was the 187th of Colangelo’s Marshall career, tying him with Eric Pinkerton for the school record.

A solo homer by Clay DeSantis and an RBI single by Koitsopolous in the eighth cut the deficit to 10-6.

The Marshall ninth opened with a walk and an error before Dziedziejko launched his second homer of the game, and third of the year, to cut the Miami lead to 10-9. After DeSantis struck out, senior Marty Rini’s pinch hit home run chased Kieninger and tied the game at 10.

Miami reliever Adam Keel (2-4) kept the RedHawks alive despite walking the first man he faced. He retired the next two hitters to send the game into extra innings.

Marshall reliever Chris Meadows (2-1) had pitched three strong innings going to the 10th, but a one-out Nolan McCue double was followed by an error in the slop to give the RedHawks life. Galloway followed the error with a two-run double and then later scored on a double-steal. All three Miami runs in the 10th were unearned.

Keel retired the Herd in order in the bottom of the inning to secure the win.

Dziedziejko led the Herd at the plate on the day with five hits and nine runs batted in. Carlin and Galloway had three hits each for the RedHawks in the second game.