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Box Score 2
Impressive pitching performances by Kevin Torres and Jordie Henry led Wayland Baptist to a pair of Sooner Athletic Conference wins, 6-0 and 5-2, over Oklahoma Panhandle State on Friday afternoon at Wilder Field.
In the opener, Torres (2-0) tossed a two-hit shutout as the senior struck out four and walked just one. Henry (2-0), a junior, followed in game 2 with 5 2/3 strong innings, allowing a pair of runs on six hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Chris Lacher finished it up by recording three strikeouts among the final four outs.
After five wins to open the season, Wayland (11-1, 5-0 SAC) has now won six in a row to stand alone atop the conference standings. OPSU fell to 4-11, 0-3.
The Pioneers and Aggies will meet for the third and final game of the series at 2 p.m. Saturday.
On Friday, Wayland recorded its second straight shutout, having closed out a three-game, conference-opening sweep at Central Christian (Kan.) last weekend with an 8-0 victory.
Torres didn't allow a hit until a two-out single in the fourth inning. The Aggies' only other hit off the right-hander was a single up the middle to lead off the seventh.
OPSU didn't get a runner past first base the entire game, which ended on a strikeout-throw out with a strong throw by WBU catcher Jonathan Ottenwalder.
The Pioneers ended with eight hits, including two each by Gregg Veneklasen and Bryan Nunez, who slapped a solo home run in the fifth for Wayland's only extra-base hit besides an RBI-double by Austin Moya in the sixth when Veneklasen had an RBI-single.
First baseman Paxton Covel recorded two RBIs, the first on a bases-loaded walk in a two-run first inning and later on a single to right-center in the third.
In the second game, the Aggies came out swinging and managed two runs in the top of the first when they tallied half of their six hits off Henry.
The Pioneers got one back in the bottom of the first on an RBI-double by Veneklasen, then went ahead with three more in the second. Brendon Foust drove in Ottenwalder on a sacrifice fly, then Nunez scored when he and courtesy runner Braeden Bomer executed a double steal. Bomer came in on an RBI-single down the left-field line by Yaniel Vargas.
A double down the left-field line by Nicholas Rucker in the fifth drove in Moya with the final run.
Veneklasen was denied what would have been his fifth home run of the season on a blast that the umpire ruled hooked beyond the wrong side of the left-field foul pole.
