Lubbock, Tex.---Franky Busani broke two records with one swing of the bat on Thursday evening, but it wasn't enough as the 23rd-ranked Pioneers fell to #1 Lubbock Christian 10-7.
Busani blasted a three-run bomb in the top of the first inning to tie the WBU mark for homers in a season with 20, set last year by Brett Cook. He stroked #21 over the fence four innings later. The two-run shot gave the senior right fielder a record-breaking 77 RBI on the season. Busani finished the night 4-for-5 with six runs batted in.
Back-to-back singles by Cook and Brett Sheppard set up Busani's first home run, giving WBU the early 3-0 lead after its half of the first.
The Chaps came back with two in the bottom half of the inning and then scored three in the second to go up 5-3.
Sheppard hit a one-out double in the third and courtesy runner Ben Seymore sailed across the plate on Busani's single to right to close the gap to 5-4, but LCU's Armando Dominguez made it a two-run game again with a solo homer in the home half of the inning.
After a scoreless fourth, Busani's homer in the fifth tied the score at six.
Pioneer starting pitcher Trevor Stringer shut down the Chaparrals for the second straight inning, but a lead off bunt single in the sixth ended the sophomore from Lubbock's night after 102 pitches.
Pinch hitter Brett Kazmierski greeted new pitcher Chris McNeil with a double to right, but after a ground ball out, McNeil fell victim to the dusky sky and extremely poor lighting at LCU's Hays Field. The junior southpaw induced the Chaps into hitting two normally routine shallow fly balls that ended up falling in for doubles when the Wayland fielders lost the ball in the dimness. LCU wound up plating four runs in the inning.
WBU relievers Brett Swett and Jason Kimzey shut the Chaps out in the seventh and eighth innings. The Pioneers were able to put one more run on the board in the eighth when Cook singled home Bobby Curtis to make it 10-7.
Stringer picked up the loss, his first of the season, to move to 8-1. He struck out five in his five innings of work.
Wayland, now 40-12 on the year and 19-10 in conference play, remains in a tie for third place in the conference standings with Southern Nazarene, 12-2 losers to Oklahoma City on Thursday. If WBU and SNU both win or both lose on Friday, the Pioneers have the tiebreaker advantage since they beat the Storm two-out-of-three earlier in the season. If one team wins and the other loses, then the winning team will be the third seed at next week's conference tournament to be held in Shawnee, Okla.
