Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 CEDAR HILL, Texas – The Wayland Baptist baseball team dropped both games of their first double header to Northwood University, falling to the Knights 4-3 and 5-4 here on Friday afternoon.
Sophomore Pioneer
Craig Cook started on the mound in game one against a Northwood team coming off of an impressive sweep of Sooner Athletic Conference member No. 4 Oklahoma City University last weekend. Craig pitched a fairly stress-free first two innings, stranding runners in scoring position in both instances. The Knights finally crossed the plate in the third inning after a two-out, bases loaded walk to the first baseman Estavan Hernandez. The pitch was just below the knees of Hernandez, but was low enough to give the first baseman a free pass and score Jordan Fuller from third.
The next batter, Isaac Maturino, hit a single to left field to drive in Herb Romero, but Wayland's
Mark Davis gunned down Adam Humes who was running from second at the plate for the final out of the inning. The outfield assist was the second of the game for the Pioneers as
Josh Chinni threw out a Northwood runner in the second inning.
The Knights tacked on two more insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth inning after
Joey DiCarlo relieved Cook after facing one batter. The lefty specialist was pulled after throwing a strikeout and giving up a single and was replaced by
Jose Urena, who finished out the game for Wayland.
The Pioneers finally got on the board in what proved to be an exciting end to the game. Reliever Jason Heflin came in to close out the game for the Knights, but after hitting a batter and giving up three hits and a run courtesy of an RBI single by "Gabby" Gabriel De La Cruz, Heflin was pulled in favor of Colton Reavis.
Senior
Johnny Hendrixson was the first batter Revis faced and the centerfielder crushed a 1-0 pitch down the right field line for a two-run double. With runners at second and third with no outs and the top of the lineup coming up, the future looked bright for the Pioneers. The Knights would eventually prevail, however, as leadoff man
Gregg Veneklasen grounded out to the pitcher and
Tyler Doolittle popped up a suicide squeeze attempt for the team's first two outs. After an intentional walk to the Pioneer three-hole, Chinni struck out with the bases loaded give the Knights the 4-3 win.
Wayland picked up right where they left off on in the second game of the double-dip, scoring a run in each of the first two innings. From there, the Pioneers' offense went cold until the sixth inning when Wayland knocked out NU's starting pitcher Clayton Woodruff.
Brian Allen led things off with a Texas-leaguer that went in and out of the rightfielder's glove, followed by a single to leftfield by
Bernie Rosario, putting runners at first and second base. After a strikeout, De La Cruz singled to leftfield, where the Knight's Herb Romero let the ball slip underneath his glove, allowing courtesy runner
Colton Palmer to score and Rosario to advance to third.
The Knights then brought in southpaw Brent Corley to face the left-handed Hendrixson who grounded out to first base, but not before scoring Rosario from third. Corley recorded the final out of the inning by getting designated hitter
Steven Polito to fly out to right.
In the Pioneers' last at bat, Northwood brought in senior right hander Keaton Parsell to close out the game. Davis reached on an error by the third baseman, but it wasn't enough to allow Wayland to come from behind, as the Knights topped Wayland 5-4.
Hendrixson led the way for the Pioneers in the double header, going 3-for-6 with four RBIs and two doubles. De La Cruz also put in a solid effort, going 1-for-3 with an RBI in both games.
The Pioneers will look to get back in the win column as they take on York College (Neb.) in another double header starting at noon on Saturday.
