Box Score SHAWNEE, Okla. – The Wayland Baptist Pioneers needed Mid-America Christian to beat the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Sunday's early game to have a chance to advance to the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament championship, but the Drovers handled the Evangels, essentially eliminating the Pioneers from further playoff contention.
Wayland and Oklahoma Baptist finished up pool play regardless, and the top-ranked Bison went on to take the final game in Pool A over the Pioneers, 4-0.
In the top of the first, Wayland (33-22) got its best chance to score, loading the bases off the Bison's ace when
Mark Davis laced a single right back up the middle and
Josh Alexander dropped in a base hit just inside the right field foul line.
Damion Lovato drew a walk to load the bases, but
Jovany Padilla grounded out to short to end the threat.
After Wayland stranded the bases loaded, Oklahoma Baptist (49-6) led off the bottom of the first with back-to-back singles up the middle before Matt Page drove in the first run of the game with a base hit to left.
The Pioneers got the first out of the inning when Padilla teamed up with
Gaby De La Cruz on a back-pick play at first to catch Page off guard, but Steven Knudson hit his 14
th home run of the season on the ninth pitch of the at bat.
Lovato made a nice diving play in left for the second out and made another nice grab on the run to end the inning. The Pioneers returned to the dugout for their second at bat trailing the Bison, 3-0.
In the bottom of the second,
Mason Taylor (7-3) gave up a lead-off single and after two wild pitches, Taylor came out of the game with a shoulder injury.
Tyler Doolittle came in for Taylor and got Mason Ankeney to go down on strikes then got the second out of the inning by getting a ground ball to third in which
Chris Buitron caught the runner trying to score from third. Doolittle, seeing his first action on the mound since March 12 and second since February 24, struck out Joey Szczepanski to end the inning.
Colton Palmer led off the third with a single, the third hit of the ball game for the Pioneers, and moved to second on a wild pitch from Julian Merryweather. Merryweather (10-2), who had 15 strike outs Sunday, got out of the inning by striking out the side to strand Palmer at second.
In the third, Doolittle got two quick outs before hitting two batters to put runners on first and second, but stranded the Bison by getting a pop up to first.
The Pioneers went down in order in the fourth and fifth before the Bison finally got to Doolittle.
OBU got its leadoff man aboard to start the bottom of the fifth, but Page and Knudson, the Bison's three and four hitters, fouled out and struck out, respectively. Ivan Vela came up, however, and smoked a ball to deep center field. Palmer made a great leaping effort to try and snag the line drive, but came up empty and Jeff Ricker scored as Vela scooted into third with a triple.
Vela got a little greedy during the next batter, and Padilla flipped the ball to Doolittle at home after a wild pitch to tag the short stop out at home. The final run of the ball game gave the Bison a 4-0 lead after five innings of play.
Davis picked up his second hit of the game in the top of the sixth, but that was the final base runner for the Pioneers as Merryweather went on to finish out a complete-game, 15-strike out performance.
In their final at bat, Merryweather got Alexander to ground out to second, Lovato to fly out to the warning track in left and Padilla to ground out to third to end the game in favor of the Bison, 4-0.
With the win, Oklahoma Baptist will take on the winner of Oklahoma City and Northwood Monday at 1 p.m. at Jim Wade Stadium in Oklahoma City.
For the Pioneers, Doolittle had an outstanding performance on the mound, throwing seven innings in relief, allowing just one run off five hits. The senior from Glendale, Ariz. had seven strike outs on the day, a career high.
Offensively, Davis added two hits, giving the senior 65 for the year, the team leader in that category. Alexander and Palmer also had a hit apiece for the Pioneers Sunday.
Wayland finishes its season with 33 wins, the most since 2009 when the Pioneers won 43 games, a program record.
