Gallery: (4-30-2022) Baseball vs. SCU
What started with a tribute to a dozen seniors ended more than four hours later with a walk-off RBI-single by
Hayden Ingram as Wayland Baptist – greatly aided by three home runs by
Dawin Santos, including a controversial blast that led to a lengthy delay – wrapped up the regular-season with an 11-10 victory over Southwestern Christian on Saturday afternoon at Wilder Field.
Wayland's Sooner Athletic Conference win – after the teams split Friday's doubleheader – guaranteed the Pioneers (27-21, 9-15 SAC) the No. 6 seed in the upcoming conference tournament, set to be played May 6-9 in Oklahoma City and Chickasha, Okla. Southwestern Christian (26-23, 7-17) is the No. 7 seed.
The visitors from Bethany, Okla., started the game with five first-inning runs, and Wayland played catch up the rest of the day. The Pioneers stayed on the Eagles' heels – getting their first three runs on two homers by Santos in the second and fourth innings and a blast by
Arturo Disla in the fourth – but weren't able to catch up all the way until a four-run eighth.
That's when Wayland, trailing 10-6 after SCU sent out a two-run homer in the sixth, got its offense in gear, starting the eighth with a single by
Danny Arambula, a double by
Justin Porter, and a two-RBI single by
Tyler Latham.
Jake Green followed with a one-out single before pinch-runner Danny Anzaldua was caught trying to score after a wild pitch.
Santos stepped to the plate after that and lifted a monster home run – his program-recording tying third of the day and team-best 17
th of the season. But Santos was ejected for flipping his bat, which led to a near 40-minute delay when umpires sought a ruling on whether to count the runs.
Eventually, it was determined both runs would count, and the four-run, six-hit inning – after Disla's fourth intentional walk of the day – ended with the score knotted at 10.
Wayland brought on closer
Jose Suero in the ninth, and the hard-throwing Suero, after allowing a lead-off walk and being called for a balk, retired the Eagles without allowing a run, benefitted by a close groundout call at first on a nice play by second baseman Arambula.
In the bottom of the inning, Arambula got things going with a walk. After
Justin Porter flew out, Arambula moved to third on a two-base error on a pickoff attempt. A strikeout almost got the Eagles out of the inning, but Ingram slapped a single up the middle to score Ingram with the winning run.
Santos finished his monster day 4-for-4 with the three homers, five RBIs and three runs scored. Green also scored three times while going 3-for-5, while Arambula was 3-for-4 and crossed home twice. Contributing two hits each to Wayland's 18-hit total were Ingram and Latham, who had two RBIs.
Suero, the fourth WBU pitcher, earned the win to improve to 2-1 alongside his nine saves. Suero took over after Derek Trevino made his first appearance in almost a month due to injury, allowing just one run on one hit while striking out five in three innings.
