The Wabash baseball team gave first-year head coach Cory Stevens a suprise and special moment Monday afternoon.
The moment came when the Little Giants took a 9-4 victory over Lebanon Valley for the first win of the season and the first of Stevens' career as a head baseball coach. The suprise came in a complete game victory by starter Joey Niezer. Wabash added one more surprise for the day with another complete game win, this time by junior TJ Siple in a 6-2 decision over the Flying Dutchmen.
Both starters picked up the complete game wins in their first starts of the year.
Niezer gave up four runs on seven hits, recording three strikeouts with only one walk. He did hit three batters in the victory. Siple scattered six hits while giving up just two runs on a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly to earn his first win of the year. He struck out four while yielding five walks and two hit batters.
Wabash trailed 1-0 in game one before posting a four-run first inning to take the lead. Kyle Rush led off with a single, stole second, moved to third on a single by Mike Nowak, then scored on an errant throw by LVC when Nowak stole second. An RBI single by Jake Thomas scored Nowak, then Thomas raced home on a single by rookie Travis Stirling.
Matt Dodaro (left) started another four-run inning with a leadoff double in the third. He scored on a Shaun Rico single after a Thomas walk. Rico and Thomas both scored when Stirling ripped another hit to center before eventually scoring himself on a single by Bobby Ritz.
Rush manufactured another run in the sixth when he singled, stole second, reached third on a wild pitch, then took home on a bad pickoff attempt.
Stirling was 2-for-2 with three RBIs to pace the Wabash offense in game one.
Game two saw the Little Giants rip three triples, including back-to-back three-baggers by Dodaro and Thomas in the first inning to put Wabash up 1-0. Freshman catcher Jake Lee laced a one-out triple to left center in the second inning, scoring one batter later on a single by Eric Carroll.
Wabash added three more runs in the third on walks by David Culp and Rico, an RBI single by Stirling, and a two-run single by Lee. The final run scored in sixth when Lee reached on his third hit of the game, eventually scoring off a sacrifice fly by Rush.
Lee finished with three of the Little Giants' eight hits, going 3-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored.
The Little Giants (2-2) return to action in Arizona Tuesday morning with a double-header against the Rochester Institute of Technology.