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Box Score 2
Wayland Baptist has some work to do Saturday if the Pioneers are to earn a series split against MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.).
No. 20 Wayland dropped a pair of games Friday at Wilder Field to the 25
th-ranked Pioneers from Olathe, Kan., falling in an entertaining opener, 13-12, before being walloped in a lopsided nightcap, 10-2.
The series, the last for Wayland before Sooner Athletic Conference play begins next weekend, resumes at noon Saturday back at Wilder Field. (NOTE: No streaming or live stats will be available Saturday.)
In Friday's first game, MNU (6-3) struck for six runs in the second inning and led 7-0 before Wayland finally got going. The home Pioneers answered with a six-run third, with
Will Bass delivering a lead-off home run,
Manuel Rios a two-RBI single, and
Austin Davis a three-run home run down the left-field line, the senior center fielder's first of the season.
An RBI-single by catcher
Ernesto Lizardi tied it at 7 in the fourth, then Wayland, after surrendering three runs in the top of the fifth, scored four in the bottom of the frame to assume an 11-10 lead. With two gone, Davis blasted his second home run, Tayler Grady doubled then swiped home on a double-steal, and
Gregg Veneklasen and Lizardi hit back-to-back RBI-singles.
After a scoreless sixth, MNU came up with three runs in the seventh off reliever
Kevin Torres (1-1), who hadn't surrendered a run in 5 2/3 innings over three previous appearances. Fueled by a pair of walks to open the seventh, MNU came through with an RBI-single then a two-out, two-RBI double.
Wayland threatened when
Hector Romero doubled, Veneklasen singled, and Lizardi poked an RBI-single through the left side of the MNU defense. But MNU pitcher Joel Lopez (2-0) got the final two outs with a strikeout and a flyout to center.
Lizardi finished 4-for-5 in the three-hour long game and, after going hitless in game two, ended the day with a team-best .568 batting average, ranking 19
th in the NAIA.
Wayland committed two errors, leading to four unearned runs for starter
Matt Flores and first reliever
Taylor Bridges.
The second game got started much better for Wayland, which took a 2-0 lead in the third when Romero hit a solo home run and Veneklasen, after a single, scored on a wild pitch and two errors.
But it went south in a big way in the fourth, when MNU figured out freshman starter
Broedy Burris and put up seven runs on six hits and an error. They tacked on three more in the fifth off another freshman arm,
Kyle Eifert, on three hits and another Wayland miscue.
MNU ended with 14 hits, compared to Wayland's eight, three of which came from Romero who was a single short of hitting for the cycle.
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