This time, big innings hurt as Pioneers fall twice

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 One big inning helped Wayland Baptist to a huge win on Monday. On Tuesday, two big innings helped hand the Pioneers two tough losses.
 
Less than 24 hours after watching Wayland rally from an 11-run deficit for an improbable 16-15 win, Midland (Neb.) came back to sweep a doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon at Wilder Field, 7-1 and 8-4. The Warriors relied on two big innings – a five-run second in the first game and a six-run first in game two – to do in the Pioneers.
 
Wayland (17-11) produced just five runs in 14 innings, less than half the number the Pioneers scored in the sixth inning alone on Monday night when they recorded their improbable come-from-behind win over the Warriors (12-15).
 
WBU appeared to be headed for a similar comeback in the final inning of the final game. Trailing 8-3 in the bottom of the seventh, Lorenzo Soriano got a two-out rally started with a walk. Brayden Blackwell singled to center field before Will Bass delivered an RBI-single up the middle.
 
Aaron Vallance walked to load the bases for Josh Alexander, and suddenly the Pioneers were within one swing of tying the game. Alexander gave the ball a ride, but the Midland center fielder caught it just short of the warning track to end the game.
 
The Pioneers couldn't recover from giving up six runs in the first inning which featured a grand slam by
Alex Parsons that rode a strong left-to-right wind over the right-field fence. WBU starter Jordie Henry (0-2) surrendered eight hits and walked two in one-plus before Kevin Torres did an admirable job in relief, allowing just one unearned run on four hits with five strikeouts and two walks over six innings.
 
Wayland managed 10 hits in the contest, but couldn't string enough of them together as the Warriors – who had a dozen hits – turned four double-plays. Bass had three hits and Blackwell two while Austin Davis delivered a two-run home run in the fourth and Lorenzo Soriano a solo shot in the third.
 
In Tuesday's opener, Wayland scored its only run of the game in the first when Alexander's double to right-center scored Bass who led off with a single. Bass ended with half of Wayland's four hits.
 
Midland had six hits in the contest and benefited from four Wayland errors, although the miscues led to just one unearned run. The Warriors did most of their damage in the second off Pioneer starter Craig Cook (0-1), who gave up just two hits in the five-run frame but issued two walks and hit two batters, plus was charged with one of two Wayland errors in the inning. The Pioneers also had a passed ball in the costly second.
 
The losses were the first back-to-back setbacks in almost a month for Wayland, which takes a couple of days off before returning to Sooner Athletic Conference play this weekend at home against St. Gregory's University (6-18, 1-4 SAC). The Pioneers (5-1 SAC) and Cavaliers are scheduled for a doubleheader starting at 3 p.m. Friday then a single game at 1 p.m. Saturday.