FORT PIERCE, Florida -- Wabash took a 2-1 lead in the second inning and never trailed from there on the way to a 6-2 win over the Wheaton (IL) College Thunder on Tuesday in spring break baseball.

Grant Stratton (1-2) earned the win for Wabash (5-3). The right-hander went 7.2 innings, giving up one run on three hits, allowing one walk and striking out seven. Robbie Manuzzi worked the final 1.1 innings, surrendering one hit and one run with one strikeout.

At the plate, the Little Giants were led by Will Phillips, who went 1-for-3 on the day with a triple, two walks, and an RBI. Michael Galanos also furnished a noteworthy performance, going 2-for-2 with a walk. Camden Scheidt added two walks and an RBI.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The Little Giants were trailing 1-0 in the second inning when they first put runs on the board. Wabash scored two runs in the inning, scoring its first run on a suicide squeeze bunt by Bradley Gilliam to score Will Fremion from third. Caleb Ellspermann drove in the second run with a sacrifice fly to bring home Evan Neukam.

The Thunder failed to push any runs across before the Little Giants' offense got back to their scoring ways the next inning. Phillips came across to score on a sacrifice fly by Scheidt for the lone run of the inning for Wabash, which extended the Little Giants' lead to 3-1.

Wabash built its lead to 5-1 in the fourth inning. Fremion and Neukam scored on a wild pitch. Gilliam scored the final run for the Little Giants in the eighth inning, coming home on an RBI groundout by Phillips.

Wheaton (2-7) scored the game's final run with a solo home run in the ninth inning for the 6-2 final.

GAME NOTES
» Stratton struck out seven Thunder hitters.
» Wabash's highest-scoring inning was the fourth when it pushed two runs across.
» The Little Giants had control of the rest of the game after jumping ahead of the Thunder 2-1 in the bottom of the second.
» Stratton put together 7.2 innings of one-run ball for the Little Giants.
» The Little Giants out-hit the Thunder at a 7-4 clip.
» Wabash went 4-for-13 (.308) with runners in scoring position.
» Wabash pitchers limited Wheaton to 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
» Wabash pitchers faced 33 Wheaton hitters in the game, allowing eight ground balls and 10 fly balls while striking out eight.
» The Little Giants drew seven walks from Wheaton pitching.
» Phillips led the Little Giants at the plate, going 1-for-3 with a triple and an RBI.
» Wheaton was led offensively by Nathan Hedlund, who went 1-for-3 with a home run and an RBI.
» Josh Ortiz led the Thunder pitching staff, throwing 3.1 innings of two-run ball.

Parts of this story were created through content automation technology from Data Skrive.