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Box Score 2 ABILENE – The Wayland Baptist baseball team took on McMurry University on Tuesday to open its 2015 season at Walt Driggers Field. The Pioneers took game one, 6-2, but fell in extra innings, 6-5, in the night cap.
"I thought we had a great day," head coach
Brad Bass said. "We played hard, ran everywhere, didn't have too many mistakes, battled, and came up with big hits. If you would have told me the outcome before we left Plainview today, I would have been thrilled. There were two good games from two really good teams, and our guys can see that they have a bright future ahead of them. Today was really fun baseball."
Taylor Bridges started game one for the Pioneers (1-1) and threw two shutout innings. Ben Bates started for McMurry (1-1), throwing 4.2 innings, but didn't fare as well as his adversary.
Will Bass started the game off with a drag bunt, reaching first on an error by the third baseman, then
Brayden Blackwell doubled down the left field line to put runners at second and third with no outs.
Ethan Percell gave Wayland its first run of the season with a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Bass to give the Pioneers a 1-0 lead.
The second inning started just as the first did for the Pioneers, with
Gaby De La Cruz singling then scoring all the way from first on a double, courtesy of
Lorenzo Soriano.
Wayland doubled its run total in the third inning, scoring two runs with two outs and no body on.
Josh Alexander drew a two-out walk then moved to third on a single from
Ernesto Lizardi. De La Cruz brought home Alexander and Lizardi after McMurry's center fielder misplayed a fly ball, giving Wayland a 4-0 lead.
McMurry scored its only two runs of the game in the third inning after
Kyle Parriera relieved Bridges after two innings of work.
Parriera gave up a leadoff single, then walked two after a fly out to load the bases with one out. The freshman Artesia, N.M. got the next batter to fly out, but the runner on third scored on the sacrifice fly. Mikal Hunter singled up the middle to cut Wayland's lead in half, 4-2, but Parriera got the next batter to strike out looking to end the inning.
The Pioneers responded with a pair of runs in the fifth, and Parriera threw a perfect fourth inning, and
Joey DiCarlo, who was credited with the win, and Michael Cowen shut out the War Hawks in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to give Wayland a 6-2 win.
Tuesday's win was the first time Wayland won its season opener since 2012 when the Pioneers defeated University of the Southwest, 6-2, on opening day.
McMurry started the scoring off in game two, getting an RBI single from Christian Simmons after Kyle Sargent led the game off with a double.
The War Hawks scored two more in the third, but in the top of the fourth, De La Cruz hit his first home run of the year, drilling a 2-2 pitch over the left field fence to cut McMurry's lead to one, 3-2.
"Gaby's home run was just smoked," Bass said. "He's been working really hard and he'll continue to work hard. I think he's going to have a great season for us this year."
In the home-half of the fourth, the War Hawks threatened again, but Alexander gunned down his second runner at the plate and
Craig Cook came in to get the Pioneers out of a bases-loaded jam by getting a fly out to center to end the inning.
McMurry scored another run in the fifth, but
Derick Spargo,
Jordie Henry threw a perfect sixth and seventh inning, setting up the comeback eighth.
Percell led the inning off with a single through the right side followed by a walk from Lizardi, who came in to catch in the previous inning. Tyler Jenkins got De La Cruz to strike out, but
Kyle Jenkins singled up the middle to score Percell and
Josh Vera hit a double in the right-center gap to score two runs. Vera's double gave Wayland a 5-4 advantage, its first lead of the game.
The lead was short-lived, however, as the War Hawks scored in the bottom of the eighth after a misplayed ball in left, tying the game 5-5.
Alexander moved from right field to the mound and threw a perfect ninth to send the game to extras where Cowan threw two shutout innings, allowing just one runner.
After their three-run eighth, the Pioneers only saw two baserunners and eventually ran out of pitching.
Austin Davis, a sophomore outfielder, came in to pitch the 12th inning, and gave up a leadoff double then walked the next batter on four pitches. McMurry sacrificed its runners to second and third, prompting an intentional walk to set up a potential double play.
McMurry's Ricky Garcia worked a three and one count, forcing Davis to throw the ball over the plate or walk in the winning run. Garcia laced Davis' offering into center, scoring the go-ahead run and giving the War Hawks a 6-5 win.
Although Bass would have liked go home with two wins, he was beyond pleased with what he saw from his team Tuesday.
"I'm really proud of how our guys played today, especially our pitchers," he said. "We went into the doubleheader planning to throw everyone, and all our pitchers threw great in their innings, but when you go into extra innings it messes up the drill.
"Josh threw an inning after not planning on pitching today, Mikey came in after not expecting to throw again, and Austin's only thrown one bullpen all year but got in there and competed. I think all those guys threw great, they just came up with a big hit in the end.
"Our outfield's range was also noticeably great today. They took a bunch of hits away, and Josh made two amazing throws to home to save a couple runs. I've always said that your pitching is only as good as your outfield, and those guys were really good today."
The Pioneers return to action at 2 p.m. Friday at Wilder Field in the first of a four-game series with Sterling College.
"I'm looking forward to the weekend," Bass continued. "We'll still probably staff it, but probably a little less than we did today.
"We have a couple things we need work on between now and then, but if you don't have anything to work on after the first day then what do you have to look forward too?"
