The 23rd-ranked Wayland Baptist Pioneers reached the 40-win plateau for the fourth time in school history and junior pitcher Todd Weldon established a new school season strikeout record in a 10-5 win over top-ranked Lubbock Christian University on a cool Tuesday evening at Wilder Field.
Weldon struck out ten in the game, giving the Carlsbad, NM native 117 K's on the year. (The old record was 110 set in 2007 by Darren Davis.) He held the hard-hitting Chaparrals to just three hits in 6-1/3 innings to improve his record to 11-3 on the season.
The Pioneers jumped on top early with a six-run first. After Brett Cook led off the bottom of the inning with a single up the middle, Brett Sheppard blasted a two-run shot over the fence in left off Chaparral starter Rene Garcia. Franky Busani followed with a base hit to center, moved to second on a Todd Jeffress walk, and scored on Keith Martin's single to right.
That brought up Josh Lucas who drove in three more runs when he launched an 0-1 pitch deep over the left field fence.
Weldon didn't allow a hit in the first three innings, although he did issue four walks. His offense helped him out with two more runs in the bottom of the third on back-to-back hits by Pedro Gomez and Cook, a perfectly executed squeeze bunt by Eddie Allen, and an RBI single off the bat of Sheppard.
The Chaparrals' Tyler Johnson broke up the no-hitter with a lead-off single in the fourth. Weldon loaded the bases with a walk and a hit batter, but got a strikeout for out number one. Bo Merrell's fielder's choice to first made it 8-1, and Jaime Armendariz got a base hit through the left side to plate another run. Tanner Rindels gave the LCU faithful hope with a three-run homer to right field, but a fly out to left ended the threat.
An unearned run in the bottom of the inning made it 9-5 Pioneers, and WBU added what turned out to be the game's final run in the fifth when Busani was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on Jeffress' double down the line, and scored on Martin's groundout to the shortstop.
Weldon retired the side in order in both the fifth and sixth innings, but after a strikeout to lead off the seventh, he walked Will Stramp on his 140th pitch of the contest. Senior southpaw Jason Kimzey came in and gave up a hit through the left side of the infield to LCU's Ross Blondin, but got Tyler Johnson to line into a 5-4 doubleplay to end the inning.
Kimzey surrendered a hit in each of the final two innings, but didn't issue any free passes to keep the danger to a minimum. He ended the game with four K's in 2-2/3 innings of work.
WBU's offense continued its assault on the school recordbook by establishing a new single season RBI mark in the contest. The old mark of 455 was set in 2006. The Pioneers have 457 so far in 2009. Brett Cook also added to his collection of records when he scored his second run of the game in the third inning. The run gives him 77 for the season, tying a mark set in 1994 by WBU Hall of Honor member Michael Reyes.
The Pioneers (40-11, 19-9) and Chaparrals (42-6, 23-4) continue their three-game series on Thursday night in Lubbock at 6:30 pm. The regular season finale is schedule for 6:30 pm Friday back at Wayland's Wilder Field.
