Box Score SAN ANTONIO – The runs returned, and so did the winning, for the Wayland Baptist baseball team.
A day after suffering their first two shutouts of the season, the No. 12 Pioneers got back on the winning track with a 10-7 non-conference victory over Our Lady of the Lake University here Tuesday afternoon.
Yaniel Vargas and Gregg Veneklasen produced three hits apiece for half of Wayland's total. Both players doubled, and Veneklasen also tripled. Had he been able to add to his NAIA-leadig home run total, the senior third baseman would have hit for the cycle.
First baseman Brendon Foust and right-fielder Nick Rucker also doubled, as did catcher Jonathan Ottenwalder as Wayland ended with five two-baggers. Foust tallied four RBIs while Rucker and Ottenwalder had two piece.
Wayland (17-7) scored twice in the first inning, but the Saints (11-17) put up three runs in the sixth to tie it at 4. The Pioneers responded with a four-run seventh, when Foust got his bases-loaded double, although OLLU didn't go away and got three of those runs back in the bottom and trimmed WBU's led to 8-7.
Rucker's two-RBI double in the eighth gave the Pioneers a couple of insurance runs, then Jonathan Frost and Carlos Dominguez, the last two of seven Wayland pitchers, closed the door on the Saints. OLLU ended with nine hits. Frost picked up the win.
The Pioneers return to Sooner Athletic Conference play against Southwestern Christian (16-7, 8-4) in games at 4 and 7 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday at Wilder Field. Wayland is tied for second place in the SAC standings with No. 18 Texas Wesleyan (14-7, 7-2), a half-game behind No. 10 Science & Arts of Oklahoma (17-3, 5-1). Southwestern Christian is tied with Mid-America Christian for fourth, while No. 4 Oklahoma City (17-5, 6-3), a 6-5 loser to Central Christian on Monday, is sixth.
