Austin, Tex.---The Pioneer baseball team improved its record to 5-1 with a doubleheader sweep of Huston Tillotson on a beautiful Friday afternoon in central Texas. First game starting pitcher Todd Weldon kept his earned run average at 0.00 with a masterful 13-1 five inning victory. In the nightcap, Christopher McNeil got his first complete game shutout as a Pioneer with a 9-0 win. Like Weldon, McNeil has now pitched 12 straight innings without surrendering an earned run.
Josh Lucas and Franky Busani swung the big sticks for the Pioneers. Lucas's three-run homer in the top of the second broke a 1-1 tie, while Busani's three-run bomb over the center field fence in the third helped to bust the game open. Lucas picked up another RBI with a sac fly in the third. Third baseman Michael Prell and pinch hitter Tyler Berg each recorded doubles in the game.
The Ram offense generated just five more hits off McNeil in the second game. The crafty southpaw threw just 80 pitches, did not walk a batter, and struck out six in the seven inning contest.
Senior Todd Jeffress was the big hitter in the nightcap, going 3-for-4 with two homers and six RBI. Pedro Gomez notched his first home run of the season with a two-run shot to right in the fourth. Brett Cook and Eddie Allen also picked up extra base hits. Cook had a two-out double down the right field line in the seventh, while Allen's triple to right center followed Gomez's shot in the fourth.
The WBU defense played nearly flawless defense in the double dipper, committing just one error in 12 innings of play.
The Pioneers take on Mount Mercy College of Grand Rapids, Iowa for two more on Saturday afternoon at Downes Field, home of Huston Tillotson, in Austin.
