Pioneers walk off against Sterling

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Three days removed from suffering a walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th to McMurry, the Wayland Baptist baseball team flipped the tables and was on the good side of the celebration. Kyle Herrington hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh to give the Pioneers a 7-6 win over Sterling College (Kan.) after falling to the Warriors, 12-4, in the series opener.

Wayland (2-2) gave up a two-run lead after Sterling scored four runs in the fifth, but the Pioneers kept fighting to stay in the game.

Brayden Blackwell started the inning off with a double to right center then scored on a pass ball after a balk moved the junior first baseman to third. Colton Palmer drew a walk and Will Bass hit a huge two-out triple off the right-center field fence, scoring Palmer to tie the game, 5-5.

Michael Cowan came in and shut Sterling (1-1) down in the top of the seventh, setting up the dramatic finish.

Josh Alexander led the inning off with a single to left, followed by a double down the line from Gaby De La Cruz, putting runners on second and third with no outs.

Sterling made a pitching change, and instead of walking Kyle Herrington to set up a force play at home and a potential double play, the Warriors chose to pitch to the junior catcher.

"Kyle is a really good hitter and the way they were playing defensively, there were only a couple places that he couldn't hit it," head coach Brad Bass said. "He
came up to me when their pitcher was warming up and asked what the squeeze sign was, and I said, 'Not happening.' I told him that they can't get him out and to just put the ball in play and hit a line drive through. He said 'yes sir,' and kept his word."

Herrington worked a 1-1 counts, but after a called strike, Sterling's pitching coach returned to the mound to discuss more strategy. The plan failed, and on the next offering Herrington hit a hard grounder past the diving third baseman to score the winning run.

Herrington was 2-for-4 in the game, including his game winning RBI.

The walk-off win came at the heels of a subpar game one for Wayland, in which the Pioneers fell to the Warriors, 12-4.

"This team has a lot of character and they love to play, so the circumstance won't dictate how they play or how the game will go," Bass said. "Things didn't go exactly like we mapped them out to in game one, but it could have been a lot worse. It was 75 degrees, the wind was blowing out and we were playing in front of a great group of fans."

The Pioneers came within a run of Sterling in the third inning of game one, but a two-run fourth and a four-run seventh doomed the Pioneers, and Wayland fell to the Warriors, 12-4.

"I really believe with the way we've played, we should be 3-1 right now, and if I make one more move then game one is a different story," the Pioneers' skipper said.
"Taylor (Bridges) didn't have his best stuff today, but he still made quality pitches and on any other day he'd throw all seven (innings). That's just the nature of the game.

"Kyle (Parriera) also had a good day; I just left him in there one inning too long. He's a great pitcher and he's going to do really well this season, there's just going to be a little bit of a learning curve with him."

Alexander was 3-for-7 on the day, notching a home run in game one and a double in game two. De La Cruz and Bass had the best day at the plate Friday, but
Blackwell and Josh Vera also had extra-base hits. De La Cruz was 3-for 6 with a pair of doubles, while Bass was 4-for-8 with a double and a triple.

On the mound, Cowan picked up the win in game two, throwing a perfect seventh inning, but Tyler Adams had a solid day. Adams started the second game, throwing four innings and giving up just one earned run.

Although Bass would have liked to be 2-0 at the day's end, he was still pleased with what he saw from his squad.

"The bottom line is that we played hard and had fun, and that's going to go a long ways this season," he bragged. "This is a really good bunch of guys to be around, and when its crunch time they clutch up."

The Pioneers finish their four-game series with Sterling with a 1 p.m. doubleheader at Wilder Field Saturday.