Season ends with 13-7 loss to #12 Rams

CHICKASHA, Okla. – Once again Wayland Baptist hung with the NAIA's 12^th-ranked team for six innings before faltering down the stretch as the Pioneers' season came to a close with a 13-7 loss to Texas Wesleyan at the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament here Saturday evening.

Much like in Friday's tournament opener which saw Texas Wesleyan pull away over the final three innings for a 9-5 win, Saturday's rematch featured a close game through the first six inning. The teams were tied, 7-7.

But the Rams knocked back-to-back home runs as part of a three-run seventh then tacked on a three more insurance runs in the ninth to put it away.

While Wayland's season comes to a close at 23-28, Texas Wesleyan (43-11) advances to take on No. 19 Science and Arts of Oklahoma (40-13), the tournament host, at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Rams must beat USAO twice in order to move on to the tournament championship game Monday. The Rams lost to the Drovers earlier Saturday, 9-1.

Wesleyan turned right around and took on the Pioneers, who won their first elimination game Friday over Southwestern Christian, 5-4. Wayland ended with eight hits while making one error against the Rams, who committed three errors but made up for its miscues with 14 hits, including three home runs.

WBU pitchers Kyle Eifert, Kevin Torres (5-5) and Collin Isbell – two freshmen and a junior – combined to strike out eight. They walked four – vs. just one free pass by Wesleyan's two pitchers – and had three wild pitches to go with a passed ball.

WBU senior Will Bass led off the bottom of the first with a home run. Wesleyan scored four runs in the third, two on a homer by Kiki Menendez, only to have the Pioneers strike for four runs of their own: a two-RBI double by Hector Romero, an RBI-groundout by Gregg Veneklasen, and a solo home run by senior Gaby DeLaCruz.

Wesleyan came right back with three runs in the fourth, with Wayland getting two of them back in the fifth through unearned runs on the heels of two Ram errors.

But that was it for the Pioneer offense, which got only two base runners – the No. 8- and 9-hole hitters – the rest of the way on a one-out double by Austin Davis in the sixth and Taylor Grady's one-out hit-by-pitch in the ninth.