Welcome to Top Sports News

Washburn, which went 4-1 last weekend in the Alvy Early Memorial Classic in Arkansas, will face Oklahoma Baptist, East Central, Harding, Southwestern Oklahoma State and Southeastern Oklahoma State this weekend. 

 

WU's Dalaney Anderson is second in the nation in runs batted in with 17 while Makenzie Sais leads the nation in stolen bases with 19 and she is ranked third in stolen bases per game at 1.90. Sais stole four bases against William Jewell.

As a team the Ichabods are fifth in the nation in stolen bases with 29 and sixth in total runs with 76. Washburn is also seventh in RBI with 68, 10th in doubles with 17, 11th in hits with 94 and 15th in fielding percentage at .980.

A dominant five-run sixth inning propelled Washburn to a 7–5 comeback victory over Truman State on Sunday morning in its final game at the Alvy Early Memorial Classic.

Trailing 5–2 heading into the bottom of the sixth, Washburn's offense erupted. 

 

Erin Boles opened the surge with an RBI single, plating Ashley Gaughan to make it 5–3. Two batters later, Anderson delivered a three-run home run to left field that put the Ichabods ahead, 6–5.

The inning continued with a double from Seaman product Aspen Burgardt, followed by an RBI single from Madi Moore to account for the final margin.

In addition to Anderson's three RBI on her go-ahead home run, Boles, Shawnee Heights product Taylor Brees, Moore and Maddie McGee each contributed an RBI as Washburn totaled 10 hits.

 

A freshman, Brees had an RBI double in the fourth inning as part of a two-hit performance.

 

Jenna Sprague was outsanding in relief in the pitching circle to pick up her first win of the season.

 

Entering in the fourth inning, Sprague tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just three hits.

Washburn University baseball opens its home schedule with three games Friday through Sunday at the Steve Anson Classic against the University of Sioux Falls and Metropolitan State Denver, starting at 2 p.m. on Friday.

 

Washburn's home stadium was named Steve Anson Stadium last season and this weekend's event is the first tournament named in the honor of the Ichabods' longtime head coach, who passed away in 2014.

 

"We've spent a long time trying to get this put together,'' said Washburn coach Harley Douglas, who was an assistant under Anson. "It wasn't going to work out very well to have a tournament where you're playing at a field that wasn't named after him.

 

"But now that you have a setup where it's named after him and it's there, we got it put together pretty quick. And in the future I want it to be a premier tournament that you're going to see awesome baseball the while entire time, just like coach always wanted to have and he always tried to bring in the right teams to do that. It's huge for us.''   

 

The Ichabods begin the tournament against Sioux Falls at 2 p.m. on Friday before facing No. 23-ranked MSU Denver at 1 p.m. on Saturday and finishing off the tournament against Sioux Falls again at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Emporia State will also take part in this weekend's tournament.

 

There is no gate fee for games.  

 

Washburn began the season 1-3 on the year after playing four road games in South Florida. The Ichabods finished the trip with a 6-0 loss to to Barry on Monday.

Douglas said he saw some good things in the Ichabods' Florida performance while also seeing plenty of things that need work.

"I thought this last weekend would be kind of a testament of our identity, kind of where we were going to be, what we were going to be like,'' Douglas said. "I thought we did a good job of coming out and competing and if you look at it, every game was tight and where it needed to be besides the last one when we didn't hit well.

"I think we had some good stuff come out of it.''

The Ichabods are coming off a fourth straight winning season in 2025, going 28-25 overall and 18-18 inside the MIAA. Washburn finished seveth in the regular season and won two games in the MIAA Tournament before falling in the semifinal round.

The Ichabods were picked to finish fifth in the MIAA Preseason Coaches Poll for a second straight year.

Washburn is scoring 7.5 runs per game on the year while opponents are scoring 9.0 runs per game. 

At the plate the Ichabods are hitting .209 with a .394 on base percentage and a .333 slugging percentage. Washburn has tallied three home runs with 31 total walks, including a program-record 17 against Palm Beach Atlantic. 

The WU pitching staff has a 7.99 earned run average with 30 strikeouts across 32.2 innings. The Ichabods have allowed 50 hits and issued 16 walks. 

Washburn has a .966 fielding percentage as a team with five errors and has not turned a double play.

On the basepaths the Ichabods have gone 3-6 in stolen base attempts while opponents have gone 5-7. 

Washburn returned 19 players from the 2025 roster.

Trenton Barry and Jarrett Herrmann have the highest hitting streak entering the weekend at two games while Levi Risenhoover had the longest hitting streak of the year at three games and he leads the team with two home runs and six RBI.

Owen Laessig, Ian Luce and Chase Littrell have all reached base in all four games this season. 

Right-handed hitters are hitting more than .100 points worse than left-handed hitters when facing the Ichabods. 

Washburn is outscoring opponents 21-14 over the final two innings of games.

Seaman product Maclane Finley has pitched a team-high 6.0 innings in his one start. He has a 1.50 ERA with a pair of strikeouts and a 1.33 WHIP. He is 10th in the MIAA in ERA. 

Kai Bennett has made one appearance this year, throwing 5.0 innings. He has allowed just one run for a 1.80 ERA and has three strikeouts with a WHIP of just .80. He is third in the MIAA in hits allowed per nine innings while ranking seventh in the conference in WHIP. 

Seaman product Gavin Wilhelm is 1-0 on the year, throwing a scoreless inning in his only appearance with a strikeout. 

Doulas enters his 12th season at the helm of the Washburn baseball program in 2025.

In 11 full seasons, Douglas carries an all-time record of 285-245 with seven appearances in the MIAA Tournament and led the program to its first-ever NCAA Tournament in 2022.

Read more …