Box Score
As much as winning games this weekend,
Brad Bass wanted his team to play solid baseball. The Wayland Baptist coach got both as his Pioneers closed out a series sweep of Central Christian College (Kan.) on Saturday afternoon at Wilder Field, 9-2. Wayland also held the Tigers to two runs in each game Friday, 3-2 and 6-2.
"We wanted to win, but more than that we wanted to play well," Bass said following the victory on Strike Out Cancer Day, when the team's purple jerseys were auctioned off as a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. "Last weekend (in the conference series-opener against Southwestern Christian) we played well except for an inning or two. This weekend we played well all the way through."
Like
Matt Flores and
Broedy Burris did in seven-inning outings Friday, freshman
Kyle Eifert (2-0) pitched a complete, nine-inning game Saturday, allowing just three hits and one earned run while striking out seven and walking none. The lefty from Canyon Randall tossed 112 pitches, one fewer than CCC's Keaton Snyder (2-3) who in eight innings gave up seven earned runs on 13 WBU hits with two Ks and three walks.
Neither team went to its bullpen the entire weekend.
Except for a tough error (the only one of the weekend for Wayland) in the fourth that led to Central Christian's first run, Eifert and the Pioneers (12-12) retired the Tigers (7-17) in order through 5 1/3 innings, before a double down the left-field line. Eifert went on to pick that runner off.
The Tigers, who join Wayland in the Sooner Athletic Conference next season, got another double in the seventh that led to their other run. Their only other baserunner came after a single in the eighth, and Pioneer catcher
Ernesto Lizardi threw him out stealing.
CCC left no runners on base the entire game.
"We got what we wanted from our pitchers," Bass said. "We were certainly hoping for those kinds of pitching performances, not just for the wins but for the opportunity to have fresh arms Monday and Tuesday."
That's when Wayland hosts Jarvis Christian in another three-game series at Wilder Field, this one starting with a single game at 6 p.m. Monday before a noon doubleheader Tuesday. Jarvis Christian (10-13) is playing Saturday and Sunday at Houston-Victoria.
"When I set up these six games I didn't plan to have three (starting pitchers) gone," Bass said, adding that his planned weekend bullpen will be his starters against Jarvis Christian.
"We're ready to roll," Bass said. "The guys threw really, really well. It was a good weekend."
It wasn't a bad one for junior third baseman
Gregg Veneklasen, who homered in all three games. Veneklasen went deep in his first at-bat Saturday with a solo shot to right, giving him nine on the season which is tied for ninth in the NAIA.
Both Lizardi and
Hector Romero ended with three hits and two RBI apiece, while
Alex Mumm and
Taylor Grady had two hits each.
Will Bass, Veneklasen and Grady all scored twice.
Wayland scored twice in the first and once in the second, but its big inning was the fourth when the Pioneers answered CCC's initial run with four. Grady and Lizardi both doubled in the frame, with Grady driving in one and Lizardi two. The final run scored after an error.
"It was a good weekend," Coach Bass said. "When you can do what our pitchers did and when you can play three games and only have one error, that's not bad. We played with confidence, were communicating and moving fast and making plays. It was the team we expected.
"Our energy level will grow with it and hopefully we'll get better next week, too."
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