Wright State wins Horizon League tournament with 24-0 rout of Oakland

Wright State beat Northern Kentucky and Oakland by a combined margin of 32-7 the first two days and then blasted Oakland again, 24-0, Saturday afternoon behind Sammy Sass’ three home runs, setting a championship game record for runs.

The Raiders earned the league’s automatic NCAA tournament bid and will learn their regional destination at noon Monday on ESPN2.

“We didn’t play our best baseball (earlier). We knew we were much better than the way we were playing,” fourth-year coach Alex Sogard said. “We talked about it all year, about how the tournament is such an important stage when you have to play your best, and our guys were eager to do it.

“We love playing at home. We came in confident. We knew we had the talent to do it.”

The top-seeded Raiders improved to 30-25 — they averaged 40.5 wins the last six years — by tallying seven runs in the first three innings on just three hits, two of them home runs by Sass.

The second-seeded Grizzlies (31-27), making their first finals appearance since joining the league in 2014, had to play three games in just over 24 hours from Thursday night to Friday night because of rain delays, and their pitching staff may have been gassed.

Brett Hagen (4-2, 6.40 ERA) started and got two quick outs. But he walked three straight and then reached a full count on Sass, who hit the next pitch over the left-field fence for a grand slam.

Gehrig Anglin doubled in the third, and Zane Harris walked. Sass, a 2021 first-team all-league catcher, then mashed a no-doubter almost to McClerron Memorial Skyway on his way to nine RBIs, tying an HL tourney record that was just 24 hours old.

Harris also had nine RBIs in the first Oakland game. The designated-hitter had 17 RBIs in three games while being named tourney MVP.

“The energy on our team was there from game one,” Harris said. “It maybe hasn’t been there all year, and, coming out, that was a deal-breaker for us. But we never got down. We did what we should do and can do.”

Harris, a second-team all-league selection, went into the tourney hitting .264 with seven homers and 44 RBIs.

He’s now batting .299 after going 10 of 12 and has nine homers and a league-high 61 RBIs.

“He’s a sixth-year senior, and he’s always hit since he’s been here,” Sogard said. “He really started slow this year, and we had a game where we didn’t play him. I think it woke him up a little bit. And, man, he hasn’t stopped since.

“If there’s a runner on base, especially with two outs, we know he’s going to come through. It’s really cool to see him, in his final season here, have probably one of the best tournaments ever.”

The Raiders, averaging 7.3 runs going into the tourney, scored their most in a three-game span since racking up 79 against Purdue Fort Wayne last season.

Lefty Alex Theis, a second-team all-league pick, was wild but also almost untouchable. He gave up eight walks but had seven strikeouts and didn’t allow a hit until a single in the sixth inning. He was yanked after that, improving his record to 6-1 and dropping his ERA to 3.14.

Andrew Patrick hit a solo homer in the fourth, giving the Raiders 78 this season to tie the program record. Sass’ two-run shot in the sixth broke the mark.

Sass, who has nine homers this season, is the third Raider in two years to club three in a game, joining Avery Fisher (April 24 against UIC) and Centerville native Quincy Hamilton (2021). He flew out to the warning track in center in his last at-bat on what he called his best swing of the day.

“I think of myself as a big-game player and big at-bat player,” Sass said. “When my team needs me, I want to be the guy who steps up. I wanted to be that guy in the box.”

Joining Harris and Sass on the all-tourney team were Anglin, Patrick. Justin Riemer, Alex Sayre and Jay Luikart.

“What a special game he had,” Sogard said of Sass. “This season, maybe offensively, it hasn’t gone as well as planned. But he’s been so huge for us behind the plate catching. That’s what he’s capable of any day when he shows up because he’s such a talented hitter.”

The Raiders have hosted the tourney at Nischwitz Stadium seven times, getting through the bracket without a loss six times.

In 16 league tourneys since 2006, the Raiders have finished first or second 13 times with wins in ‘06, ‘09, ‘11, ‘15, ‘16, ‘18, ‘21, ‘22.

“It’s what’s expected here,” Sass said. “It takes a lot of hard work, but if you come here, you expect championships.”