Errors played a major role when Wayland Baptist and Our Lady of the Lake University squared off Monday afternoon in a non-conference doubleheader at Wilder Field. They proved costly for the Pioneers in an 8-4 game 1 loss, but Wayland benefited from them in taking game 2, 6-1.
The split left the Pioneers, ranked the equivalent of 32nd in the NAIA, with a 15-4 record while the Saints, a member of the Red River Athletic Conference, returned to San Antonio with a 14-12 mark.
The Sooner Athletic Conference-leading Pioneers (5-0 SAC) return to league play this coming weekend in Fort Worth against No. 21 Texas Wesleyan (22-4, 5-1) with a doubleheader at noon Friday followed by a single game at noon Saturday.
Monday's games, on the heels of a three-game sweep of Bacone College last weekend, were in doubt due to weather, but the Pioneers and Saints got them in before expected storms hit, although temperatures were in the 40s with light winds under overcast skies.
In the first game, OLLU's 8-4 win that snapped Wayland's 10-game win streak, the Pioneers committed three errors that led to six of the Saints' eight runs. Two of those came in the top of the first inning after an error and wild pitch, although Wayland responded by plating three in the bottom after a lead-off single by Jonathan Ottenwalder and RBI-triples by Dawin Santos and Devlin Smith. A wild pitch also allowed a run in.
OLLU's only earned runs off Wayland pitching came in the second with back-to-back singles, but even those runs came after a play that could have been made to get the Pioneers and starting pitcher Deric Trevino (0-2) out of the inning.
The Saints stretched their lead to 5-3 with two more runs in the fifth, those after a dropped fly ball and a balk.
Wayland was in position for a big fifth when shortstop Gregory Ozuna led off with a double, although he was later caught stealing third. Still, a walk and three hit-batsmen in a row – two by a Saint who plunked batters on his only two pitches – brought home a run before a called third-strike ended the threat with the bases loaded.
OLLU scored its final two runs in the sixth after a two-out error on a dropped throw.
WBU wound up with seven hits – three by Ozuna – but left nine runners on base, stranding Pioneers in every inning but the last.
It was the Saints' turn to fall victim to errors in game two, none costlier than a bad throw on Nick Valenzuela's grounder which, after a walk to Daniel Goncalves, Ozuna made painful with a three-run home run to left field in the third. It was Ozuna's fourth homer of the year, tying him with Santos for the team lead.
The Pioneers tallied three more runs in the next inning, two on a homer to left-center by Nick Rucker that followed Devlin Smith's single, and the last on an RBI-fielder's choice by Goncalves.
Freshman Cesar Paz earned his first win as a Pioneer, allowing no runs with one hit with two strikeouts and a walk while pitching the final two innings. Sophomore lefty starter Kyle Eifert, in 3 2/3, gave up a run on three hits with three Ks and four walks, while freshman Irving Munoz allowed a hit and walked one in 1 1/3.
