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Western Illinois University Athletics

Javin Drake
1
Fort Wayne FW 4-14, 1-2 Summit
4
Winner Western Illinois WIU 3-14, 2-1 Summit
Fort Wayne FW
4-14, 1-2 Summit
1
Final
4
Western Illinois WIU
3-14, 2-1 Summit
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Fort Wayne FW 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 6 0
Western Illinois WIU 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 X 4 6 2

W: Drake, Javin (1-4) L: Mitchell Ley (1-3) S: Westfahl, Nate (1)

Game Recap: Baseball | | WIU Athletic Communications

Western Takes Series Win over Fort Wayne

Javin Drake pitches a season-high 7.1 innings and Roman Visintine hit a pair of doubles

MACOMB, Ill. – Freshman Javin Drake pitched a season-high 7.1 innings in his first Summit League start and Roman Visintine hit a pair of doubles and drove in two runs during Western Illinois' 4-1 victory over Fort Wayne. Sunday's win gave Western the weekend series win in the League's opening weekend for both teams.
 
The Leathernecks defensively helped Drake and relief pitcher Nate Westfahl by turning three double plays, matching the highest total since March 2015.
 
Western (3-14 overall, 2-1 Summit League) started the first inning with a single from leadoff hitter Cord Church, Visintine's first double of the game, and an intentional walk to Adam McGinnis. Mitchell Ley turned a double play, but WIU was able to take a 1-0 lead.
 
Deion Thompson singled to start the third inning. He took second on Visintine's groundout and scored when McGinnis lifted a ball into right field. Jake Weber made a diving effort but the ball came loose when he hit the ground, and Western went ahead 2-0.
 
Fort Wayne threatened in the second with two outs. Travis Upp singled with two outs. Zak Kellogg followed with a double to left field, on the play Upp was held at third and Western was able to throw out Kellogg back at second base to end the inning. The Mastodons cut the deficit in half on Jacob Dickson's solo home run in the fifth.
 
Visintine got that run back and another in the team's half of the fifth. Thompson walked with two outs, went to second on Church's single and both scored when Visintine lined a two-run double to the right field gap.
 
Drake (1-4) used an inning-ending double play to get out of the sixth, and retired Fort Wayne on six pitches in the seventh. The freshman right-hander got the first out of the eighth but then gave up a double and single to put runners on the corners. Westfahl entered and turned a 5-4-3 inning ending double play.
 
A leadoff error in the ninth for Fort Wayne brought up the clean-up hitter, but Westfahl was able to get another ground ball double play then a flyball to secure Western's Summit League weekend series win.
 
The Leathernecks had lost 11 in a row to Fort Wayne, dating back to the 2015 season, but took 2-of-3 over the weekend for their first series win of this season.
 
Western head coach Ryan Brownlee had praise for his freshman right-hander.
 
"Freshman year is a learning process. He's been a strike thrower but the last couple of outings he's walked too many guys. Javin and I talked, solo home runs are not going to beat you. What's going to beat you is giving up some free bases. He was tremendous today pounding it in the strike zone," said Brownlee. "He's starting to get some confidence, and it takes you a little bit your freshman year to get some confidence."
 
Drake allowed just one run on six hits in his season-high 7.1 innings. He walked one and struck out three. Westfahl pitched 1.2 hitless innings of relief to earn his first save of the year and sixth in his career.
 
Visintine's two doubles were one shy of the WIU single-game record. His two RBI matched a career-high. Church added a season-high two hits and set a career-high with two runs scored.
 
"Our two-out hitting today was tremendous. We only left one runner on base, I can't tell you the last time we've had a game and only left one guy on base. That may have never happed for us, it always seems like we leave some guys out there. I challenged the guys before BP we've got to win on Sundays if we want to give ourselves a realistic chance to win the conference championship or be in the conversation. They met the challenge today," said Brownlee. "We played really good defense, we turned some double plays. Our outfield communication was much better today. When you start getting that stuff going, that's when you can get on a roll."
 
Ley (1-3) allowed four runs on six hits in five innings. Cameron Boyd retired all nine Leathernecks he faced in order.
 
Western continues its eight-game homestand on Wednesday (March 22) with a 3 p.m. first pitch against St. Ambrose.
 
 
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