Wright State baseball: Raiders win Horizon League championship, earn NCAA berth

The Raiders will learn of their NCAA destination at noon on Monday, which will be their first appearance since 2018.

“Honestly, I think we’re a sleeping giant,” Dues said. “Sogard’s told us that – we all believe it. We can go do something.”

The Raiders (35-11) have never won a four-team regional.

“I think we can make some noise in the regional no doubt,” head coach Alex Sogard said. “We talked this whole year about trying to do something that’s never been done in this program and that’s win a regional.”

The Raiders’ lineup is built for such an accomplishment. They are averaging 10.6 runs a game and lead the nation in batting average at .338, on-base percentage at .448 and slugging percentage at .570.

“Our guys just never give in,” Sogard said. “They continue to fight, and we had a lot of two-strike hits today, a lot of two-strike RBIs. We’re a tough lineup to get through.”

Dues, a sophomore shortstop from Vandalia Butler, finished 5-for-6 with five runs scored, three RBIs and two stolen bases. He singled in the first, doubled in the second and third, hit a two-run homer in the fourth and tripled to the right-field corner and walked in the sixth to reach the cycle for the first time in his life. The Panthers finally retired Dues in the eighth on a grounder to shortstop.

“I wasn’t trying to hit a triple, for sure,” Dues said. “When I hit that ball done the line, honestly, I didn’t even look where it went. I was like, ‘I’m going to third.’ And if I get thrown out, I’m still going. Nothing’s stopping me.”

Raiders starer Austin Cline (8-1) was free to challenge Milwaukee hitters from the beginning. The Raiders scored four runs in the first and third, seven in the sixth and scored in each of the first seven innings. Cline went 7 1/3 innings, struck out nine and allowed three runs on seven hits and no walks.

“He was phenomenal,” Sogard said. “He’s really the guy you want to hand the ball to. He transferred here from another DI (Dayton) because he wanted to win and wanted to get the ring. It’s pretty cool that he got the start today.”

Cline, catcher Konner Piotto, who had the final putout, Mitch Gremling, who pitched the ninth, and left fielder Alex Alders all returned this season to take advantage of the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“They could’ve walked away,” Dues said. “And a lot of this goes to them – their leadership. I don’t know if we’d be here without them.”

Dues had a lot of offensive help. The Raiders had 21 hits, Zane Harris, a junior first baseman, was 4-for-6 with a three-run homer and seven RBIs and Piotto was 4-for-6 with three RBIs.

“I feel like we were a freight train through everyone – our offense, our pitching staff our defense,” Dues said. “We have just been clicking for a while now. Nothing was going to stop us from this.”