Santos' walk-off lifts WBU in SAC debut

Gregory Ozuna hit a three-run home run to tie it in the fourth, allowing Dawin Santos to win it with an RBI, walkoff single in the bottom of the seventh inning as Wayland Baptist won its Sooner Athletic Conference opener over Southwestern Assemblies of God University Friday afternoon at Wilder Field, 6-5.
 
Wayland was well on its way to winning the second game of the doubleheader before two storm delays forced officials to postpone the contest. The Pioneers are leading in that one, 7-3 in the bottom of the sixth inning.
 
Game 2, which started at 4:45 p.m., was first delayed in the top of the second inning. The teams ate dinner while waiting out the storm that stayed south of Plainview, and after about a three-hour delay play resumed around 8 p.m. A second storm – this one bringing more lightning and heavy rain – moved in and play was delayed again at 9:37 p.m.
 
The teams will meet back up at noon Saturday to finish Game 2 then play a nine-inning Game 3 to conclude the series. That's all dependent on the weather, of course, and more storms are in the forecast for Saturday.
 
In the series opener, Wayland (13-8, 1-0 SAC) trailed 5-2 after SAGU (20-7, 2-2) scored four runs in the third. The Pioneers tied it up the next inning when Jacob Adams led off with a single and Justin Porter was hit by a pitch before Ozuna – who scored unearned in the first following a bunt single – belted a no-doubt, one-out homer to left field, making it 5-all.
 
SAGU threatened to retake the lead in the seventh, loading the bases with one out. But relief pitcher Ty Jackson, who replaced Tanner Solomon after he battled for six-plus innings, struck out the next two batters, the first one on three pitches and the second on eight.
 
That set the stage for Wayland's seventh-inning heroics.
 
It started when Luis Vargas, in the lineup as designated hitter instead of centerfielder after missing several games with injury, led off with an opposite-field, stand-up triple down the right-field line. Casey Dudek pinch ran for Vargas then, after Marco Rivera flew out to shallow center, Santos came through with a bloop single also down the right-field line that plated Dudek to win it.
 
Jackson (2-0) earned the win with his two-strikeout seventh. In his six innings, Solomon allowed five runs on seven hits with six Ks and five walks.
 
Ben Bills (6-2) went the distance and took the loss for the Lions, giving up five earned runs on nine hits with five strikeouts and no walks. He balked in a run in the second as Porter scored after a lead-off double and sacrifice bunt by Tristan Galbreath.