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Box Score 2 FORT WORTH – Looking to get out of a second-place tie in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings in its final regular-season series, the Wayland Baptist baseball team traveled took to LaGrave Field to take on Texas Wesleyan. The Rams took two close games Friday, 5-3 and 3-2, to take away any hopes the Pioneers had of moving up in the standings.
In the first inning of game one, Wayland (31-20, 17-9 SAC) got three walks and a hit off the Rams' starting pitcher, Sam Martin, but failed to plate any runs.
Colton Palmer led off the game with a four-pitch walk, but was picked off of first base, and
Aaron Vallance followed with a four-pitch walk before
Mark Davis finally saw the first strike of the game.Davis reached on a fielder's choice, while
Josh Alexander and
Damion Lovato singled and walked, respectively, to load the bases.
Martin (8-1) worked out of the jam, however, getting
Gaby De La Cruz to hit a ground ball to short to end the inning.
Wayland's starting pitcher,
Taylor Bridges (6-4), had an easy first two innings on the mound, but got into trouble in the third.
The Rams (26-23, 15-11) got four consecutive hits with one out, scoring two runs. Texas Wesleyan's clean-up hitter, Dakota Lee, came up with runners on first and second and no outs and crushed Taylor's offering toward the left field foul pole. The ball sailed just left of the pole, and the Pioneer dugout breathed a sigh of relief.
Taylor got Lee to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning, but the Rams had taken a 2-0 lead.
The Pioneers cut the lead in half in the fourth when
Chris Buitron came up with a clutch, two-out hit to score
Josh Vera from third.
The Rams responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning, however, getting their first two hitters on with a pair of singles. Joel Rickman drew a one-out walk to load the bases, which was Bridges' last batter. Way back in the first inning, Bridges took a hard-hit grounder off his throwing hand and stayed in the game, but exited in the fourth when he could no longer feel his hand.
Craig Cook came in for the freshman and got a fly ball to center, but Jake Davis was able to score on the sacrifice, increasing the Rams' lead, 3-1.
Wayland scored another run in the fifth via a double from Alexander to bring home Davis, who singled and moved to second on a wild pitch. Alexander's RBI cut the Rams' lead down, 3-2.
Cook and the WBU defense came up with a big double play to end the fifth, then in the top of the sixth Wayland got
Jovany Padilla to third on a single, a sacrifice bunt and a pass ball.
Brayden Blackwell smoked a line drive to right field, but TWU's Jake Howeth made a great diving catch and fired a strike to home to keep Padilla at third. Martin then got Palmer to ground out to third for the final out, ending the inning.
With the Pioneers scoring eight runs in their final at-bat over the last three games, Texas Wesleyan picked up some valuable insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. Cook got two quick outs after walking the leadoff batter, and almost got out of the inning unscathed by snagging a comebacker, but the ball went off his glove toward second base and allowed a run to score.
Another single prompted WBU head coach
Brad Bass to bring in
Jose Urena, who walked his first batter then gave up an RBI-single before getting a strikeout to end the inning, 5-2.
In their final at-bat, the Pioneers did get a run off a double from Vera, bringing the tying run to the plate, but Martin got De La Cruz to go down on strikes to end the game, 5-3.
In game two, Pioneer pitcher
Mason Taylor got into a little trouble in the first inning, loading the bases and giving up an RBI-single, but escaped with minimal damage by striking out the next two hitters to get out of the inning.
The Rams scored an unearned run in the second, but Taylor finally found his groove, retiring the next 11 batters in order.
With Taylor working hard to keep his team in the game, the Pioneers finally got something going against Texas Wesleyan's tough, side-arm pitcher. Mitch McCleod gave up just two singles and a walk over the first five innings, allowing just one runner to make it to second base.
Vera, who did a solid job filling in for an injured
Damion Lovato in left, drew his second walk of the game to lead off the sixth. Palmer worked the count full, fouling off several pitches, before eventually grounding out to second. That moved Vera into scoring position, and Vallance followed Palmer with a single to right, putting runners on the corners with one out.
The Pioneers got their first run of the game when Vera raced home on a pass ball, dipping into the Rams' lead, 2-1.
Davis proceeded to even the score, 2-2, with a base knock to right, scoring Vallance from second.
In the home half of the sixth, Taylor got two groundouts to short, but started to show signs of fatigue.Quavian Lawson drew a two-out walk and Ryan Adams singled to move the runner into scoring position. The Rams then got a single to left from Rickman to score pinch runner, Anthony Samuel. Rickman's RBI gave Texas Wesleyan a 3-2 lead with one inning to play.
Buitron drew a one-out walk and moved into scoring position on a pass ball, but McCleod finished off the Pioneers by striking out the next two hitters, giving the Rams a 3-2 win.
The sweep moves Wayland out of a tie for second in the SAC standings, but the Pioneers can salvage the series Saturday in the final installment of the three-game series. Wayland and Texas Wesleyan will finish the regular season beginning at noon Saturday at Sycamore Park.
