Toth shown on Sunday

Lake Erie College baseball recorded its first ever win over a Division I opponent as the Storm rained all over Cleveland State on Sunday afternoon at All Pro Freight Stadium.

Admiral King’s Matt Toth, a sophomore, hit his second career home run and Vermilion’s Adam Beach, a red-shirt freshman, pitched six solid innings to lead the Storm (9-8) over the Vikings, 19-4 through a steady drizzle of rain.

The win was the Storm’s school record-tying fifth straight and moved the team above .500 this late into a season for the first time in the program’s nine-year history.
“We’ve made tremendous strides as a program, but it’s not as important as where we are as where we are going, and we are going in a great direction,” Lake Erie College coach Brian McGee said through a press release. “I’m really proud of our coaching staff and the players who believe in this program and work hard every day at getting better.”

The game also marked the first time that Lake Erie College had ever faced a Division I school.

“I think early on, our guys had some jitters and maybe some nerves about playing a Division I team, but they were really excited about the opportunity as well,” McGee added. “After the first few innings, we seemed to settle in and start to play our way - hard and aggressive - and just got rolling.”

Other than the single runs in the second and third innings, the Vikings could do little against Beach, who won his third-straight start. He scattered five hits in six innings of work. With the wet weather making it difficult to grip the ball at times, Beach still struck out a career-high nine hitters, including the first five outs of the game.

“Adam was fantastic today,” McGee said. “He spotted his fastball really well. And he battled through the early part of the game when he didn’t have his best stuff or great control. But he just kept going after guys and attacking. He has a very tough mentality, which is rare in first-year pitchers.”

Toth drove in a career-high four runs and has six RBI in the last two games.

The Storm will get its second shot at a D-I opponent on Tuesday when it travels to the University of Akron.

Toth hit his first college home run for Lake Erie College against Baldwin-Wallace on Saturday.

swalker@MorningJournal.com