Bethany, Okla.---Southern Nazarene scored 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to break open a 3-3 tie, and then had to hold on for dear life as the WBU Pioneers mounted a furious rally on a windy Friday afternoon at SNU's Cypert Field. The comeback fell a run short, however, and the Pioneers failed to pick up the three-game series sweep with a 15-14 loss.
Wayland, which won the first two games on Thursday 7-6 and 6-4, outscored the Crimson Storm 11-2 over the final five innings of the finale, but could not get the tying run across the plate in the top of the ninth inning. WBU scored three runs, all with two outs, in its last at bat, but SNU relief pitcher Sal Ramirez got out of a bases loaded jam to secure the victory for the 17th-ranked Storm.
The middle of the order got the Pioneers on the board first when Keith Martin, Josh Lucas and Pedro Gomez got consecutive hits off Storm starter Matt Morgal. Gomez' single scored Martin and a wild pitch got Lucas across the plate.
SNU got a run of its own in the home half of the inning and tallied two more in the third. Bobby Curtis tied it at three with a solo home run with two out in the fourth, but the Storm answered with ten runs on seven hits, two walks, a hit batsmen and three Pioneer errors.
Wayland began chipping away at the lead in the fifth with a run scoring single off the bat of Gomez. Four more WBU runs crossed the plate in the seventh. Brett Sheppard got hit by a pitch to lead off the inning. After Franky Busani walked, Lucas hit a shot down the left field line to score courtesy runner Ben Seymore. One out later, Curtis hit his second bomb of the game to make it 13-8.
Pioneer reliever Brett Swett pitched 2-1/3 innings of hitless ball, striking out three, and Jason Kimzey pitched a scoreless seventh. In the top of the eighth, Martin made it 13-11 with a three-run homer to left center, but the Storm came back with two unearned runs in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead to 15-11.
Pinch hitter Marcus Limon got things going in the ninth with a one out double through the left side of the infield. Eddie Allen followed with a long fly ball to left that appeared to be going over the fence, but SNU's Brandon Hardy reached up his glove and made the stab despite backing hard into the fence.
Brett Cook drew a two-out walk, then Todd Jeffress and Sheppard got back-to-back RBI singles. After Busani walked for the third time in the contest, pinch hitter Scott Keane took four straight pitches to earn a RBI with the bases loaded walk. That brought in Ramirez who got the game's final out.
The Pioneers, led by Lucas with three hits, outhit the Storm 15-13 in the contest, but committed five errors that resulted in three unearned runs. Chris McNeil (4-2) took the loss for WBU, which is now 24-8 on the season and 9-6 in SAC play. Southern Naz improves to 23-7 and 7-5.
