Alva, Okla.---The ball was flying out of the yard Friday afternoon at Northwestern Oklahoma State's Ranger Field, and fortunately for the Pioneers, the majority of those balls came off their own bats in a 13-8 and 21-6 doubleheader sweep of NWOSU. WBU smashed a total of 13 home runs in the two games, led by senior second baseman Brett Cook with three.
In Friday's opener at Northwestern, Wayland scored five runs in the second, highlighted by Eddie Allen's three-run homer, to take a 5-0 lead. The Rangers came back with four in the bottom half of the inning and three more in the third to make it 7-5.
Pedro Gomez and Cook hit back-to-back jacks in the fourth to tie it up at 7. The Pioneers took the lead for good in the fifth on Cook's three-run bomb, then got three more in the sixth on a solo shot by Franky Busani and a two-run long ball from Brett Sheppard.
Brett Swett went to the mound with two on and one out in the fourth and shut down the high-powered Ranger offense. The junior from Riddle, Ore. allowed just one run on five hits and struck out two in 3-2/3 innings of work. He did not walk a batter in picking up his second win of the season.
Busani, Sheppard and Bobby Curtis each picked up a double in the contest, and Courtney Williams picked up a pinch-hit single.
The Pioneers scored five runs in the first and nine in the second to give game two starter Todd Weldon plenty of room to work. Josh Lucas did most of the heavy lifting in the first inning with a three-run homer, while Todd Jeffress and Cook each had three-run bombs in the second.
After Jeffress doubled in the third and later scored on Gomez's RBI groundout, WBU put up a four-spot in the fourth, thanks to Oscar Rivera's solo shot to lead off the inning and Busani's three-run blast three batters later.
Marcus Limon and Calvin Bass finished out the scoring with back-to-back solo home runs in the fifth, the first long ball by each player this spring.
Todd Weldon went the distance, picking up his sixth complete game of the year. The junior struck out eight batters in five innings of work.
Cook, Jeffress and Sheppard each went 3-for-3 in the nightcap. Cook and Sheppard had two doubles a piece, while Allen, Busani and Jeffress picked up one each. Ben Seymore and Michael Prell also recorded hits in the game.
Since a 3-1/2 hour team meeting on Monday night, the Pioneers have scored a grand total of 50 runs on 51 hits in three games, including a 16-6 victory over Eastern New Mexico on Wednesday.
The Pioneers (28-10, 12-8) and Rangers (21-15, 8-9) finish out the series at noon on Saturday.
