Box Score WOODWARD, Okla. --- In what could be considered a must-win game for both teams, the Pioneers and Northwestern Oklahoma State pulled out all the stops in an 18-17 Wayland victory. The two teams combined for 35 runs and 43 hits in a contest that started 25 minutes late on Sunday evening and lasted right at three hours. There were also 11 walks issued and five batters hit by the 11 pitchers used.
The victory moved the Pioneers, who improved to 8-14 in conference play, into seventh place in the SAC standings, one half game in front of USAO (9-16) and two full games ahead of ninth place Southern Nazarene (7-17).
The Pioneers scored four runs in the first, highlighted by Brian Embery's two-run double. Eddie Allen, Ben Christian and Miguel Pagan hit three straight doubles in the second, followed by RBI singles off the bats of Aldo Mendez and Embery to make it 8-0. In the third, Kevin Hennessey and Mendez picked up an RBI each with a single and a double respectively to make it 10-0.
After Northwestern came back with four in the bottom of the inning, WBU responded with five unearned runs in the fourth. The big hit was provided by Hennessey who blasted a three-run bomb that made it 15-4.
NWOSU's Vincent Valdez got three of those runs back in the home half of the frame with one swing of the bat, closing the gap to 15-7, and then the Rangers tied it up with an eight-run sixth.
Wayland went back up by three in the seventh. Catcher Oscar Rivera drew a lead-off walked. Calvin Bass sacrificed courtesy runner Scott Keane to second, and Keane scored on Eddie Allen's base hit. Allen advanced to second on the throw home and then moved to third on a throwing error by the catcher. Christian brought home Allen on a single, and after Pagan picked up his sixth hit, Hennessey was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Mendez then made it 18-15 with his fourth run batted in of the contest.
Junior Jobi Sanchez of Plainview, the fourth pitcher used by the Pioneers in that long sixth inning, shut down the home team in the seventh. After issuing a lead-off walk in the eighth, Sanchez gave way to Marcus Limon.
The senior who took the loss in the first game on Saturday pitched a scoreless eighth. He recorded strikeouts on the first two batters in the ninth, but a passed ball put the second one on base. After another K, Valdez knocked out his fourth home run of the series to make it a one-run game.
Limon picked up his fourth strikeout of the inning on the next batter to preserve the win for the Pioneers and Sanchez. It was Sanchez's second win and Limon's first save of the season.
Wayland produced 24 hits in the game. Pagan went 6-for-7, Christian was 5-for-7, and Embery and Mendez had three hits each.
After a five hour bus trip home, the Pioneers face a quick turn-around as they face another conference opponent, Lubbock Christian, at 6:30 on Monday evening.
