Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 It looked much better on the field, but the net result was the same Saturday as it was Friday for the Wayland Baptist baseball team as the 20
th-ranked Pioneers dropped another doubleheader to Sterling College (Kan.) at Wilder Field, 6-4 and 7-4.
Unlike Friday when the Warriors – an NAIA World Series team ranked No. 5 last season – rolled to 20-1 and 8-0 victories, Saturday afternoon's games were both competitive. In fact, both weren't finally decided until the seventh inning.
In the first game, Sterling took a 4-0 lead before Wayland rallied to tie it with a run in the third and three in the fourth.
Will Bass walked then stole both second and third before scoring on a groundout by
Gregg Veneklasen to get things started. In the fourth,
Ernesto Lizardi's hard-hit ball off the Sterling pitcher plated Gabby De La Cruz. After
Hector Romero hit a solo home run, a two-out single up the middle by Bass scored
Taylor Grady with the unearned fourth run.
Neither team scored in the fifth or sixth, but Sterling got two across in the seventh after the Warriors drew a lead-off walk and single. Wayland was able to turn a double-play but the Warriors snuck home a run, then two singles aided by an error on a pickoff attempt gave Sterling a two-run cushion.
The Pioneers threatened in the bottom of the seventh when De La Cruz drew a two-out walk and
Caleb Davidson singled. But the game ended when Lizardi grounded out to third.
Jonathan Frost started for WBU, giving up four earned runs on six hits in 2 2/3 innings before
Broedy Burris (1-1) delivered the next four innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits.
Kyle Eifert recorded one out.
Bass, Davidson and Lizardi had two hits apiece as Wayland ended with eight total, one fewer than Sterling. Both teams committed two errors.
In the series finale, Sterling started the same way it did the previous three games, by scoring one run in the first. Wayland had a much faster answer this time, as Veneklasen homered to left field in the bottom of the first.
The Pioneers took their first lead of the weekend in the next inning when Lizardi, now at designated hitter after catching the opener, hit a lead-off double then scored on Brandon Foust's RBI-single.
Sterling regained the lead with two in the third, but Wayland tied it at 3 in the fourth when Lizardi again had a lead-off hit, went to second on Davidson's sacrifice bunt, and scored on
JP Rousseau's RBI-single up the middle.
The Warriors pushed across single runs in both the fifth and sixth frames. Wayland got one back in the sixth on a one-out homer by Lizardi.
Sterling plated a pair of insurance runs in the seventh when Wayland freshman starter
Bryson Calaway finally began to tire. Eifert and
Jose Urena came on in relief, both allowing hits.
Wayland was retired in order in the seventh by Miceal Taylor, who relieved starter Jerrott Gray (1-0) to start the inning.
The Pioneers were done in by four costly errors the led to four unearned runs. Calaway, whose no-hit bid Sunday in Hobbs, N.M., against University of the Southwest was cut short in the fourth inning by darkness, allowed six runs, only two earned, on six hits with five strikeouts and three walks.
Lizardi wound up 3-for-3 with three runs scored and an RBI. Veneklasen was 2-for-3.
The Pioneers return to action at 2 p.m. Friday in a single game at home against McMurry.
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