On a day when the wind was blowing from right to left with gusts in excess of 40 mph, fans at Wilder Field might have thought balls would have been fllying out of the yard, but instead the two teams combined for only five home runs in the doubleheader split. The Pioneers took the opener, 9-5, and the Bison came back to get the win in the nightcap by a score of 9-3.
Wayland outhit OBU 11-8 in the first game and Marcus Limon recorded ten strikeouts to get his fifth win of the season. Scott Keane was the only Pioneer to go long, slapping a three-run homer in the fourth inning that opened up a 4-3 game.
The Pioneers scored all their runs in the second, third and fourth innings. In the second, RBI singles by Oscar Rivera and Eddie Allen, and a two-run base hit off the bat of Pedro Gomez gave WBU a 4-0 lead.
After the Bison came back with three runs in the top of the third, Josh Lucas and Rivera hit back-to-back singles to get on base for Keane who took a 2-2 count over the bullpen in left field. Allen scored the final run in the inning after taking a four-pitch walk, stealing second, advancing to third on a ground ball, and then crossing the plate on a passed ball.
OBU plated another run in the fourth, but Wayland got it back after Kevin Hennessey doubled and eventually scored on a groundout by Josh Lucas.
Limon got the first two batters in the Bison seventh on strikeouts, but issued consecutive walks to the next two batters. Senior reliever Brett Swett got the final out of the game on a looping line drive back to the pitcher's mound.
OBU second baseman Arin Fowble went deep twice in the game.
In the nightcap, both teams recorded 12 hits, but WBU left 11 on base, while their opponents left just five men stranded. Todd Weldon picked up his second loss of the season after allowing four earned runs on nine hits. The senior from Carlsbad struck out seven in 5-2/3 and walked two.
Jose Santiago got the Pioneers on the board first with a lead-off homer in the second. OBU took the lead in the third with two unearned runs, and then pulled ahead 3-1 with another run in the fifth.
Wayland (19-12, 9-5) tied it up in the bottom of the inning on Gomez' triple down the right field line, Hennessey's run-scoring single, and a hit through the left side by Santiago.
The bottom fell out for the Pioneers in the final two innings as the Bison (25-7, 4-6) scored three runs in both the sixth and seventh, highlighted by Anthony Ramirez's two-run homer off the top of Hutcherson Center in the seventh.
Allen, Gomez and Hennessey each had four hits in the twinbill. Three of Hennessey's were doubles, as was one of Allen's.
The rubber game of the series is set for 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon. The weather forecast for the day is 60 degrees with wind gusts up to 50 mph.
