WPU Swept by League-Leading GVU to Start Weekend Series

Des Moines–The Statesmen baseball team was unable to pick off the top team in the league as it was swept by Grand View in a Heart of America Athletic Conference doubleheader Friday.

William Penn (16-22, 9-17 Heart) fell by scores of 7-4 and 3-1. The teams will meet up Saturday for another Heart twinbill at 1 p.m.

The visitors were outhit 10-4 by the Vikings (29-7, 22-4 Heart) in the opener, but put the home squad on alert right away with two runs in the first inning.

Hector Dominguez (Jr., Fontana, Calif., Exercise Science) tripled home Abraham Arroyo (Grad., Camuy, P.R., Master’s of Sports Management) and then scored himself on a single by Ened Perez (So., Orocovis, P.R., Kinesiology). Perez paced WPU with two hits.

Unfortunately, GVU responded with seven unanswered runs, including three in both the third and fourth innings.

A balk allowed Andres Pineda (Jr., Colombia, Secondary Education) to come home in the fifth, while Aiden North (So., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Industrial Technology) also scored later in the frame. The rally would fall short, however, as the Statesmen could not produce any offense in the final two innings.

The hurlers controlled the afternoon’s second matchup as the teams combined for just three runs on 16 hits (9-7 in favor of GVU).

The Vikings broke through with one run in the second and two more in the sixth, while WPU finally got on the board with a seventh-inning tally. North’s double plated Jagger Mitchell (Jr., Rock Springs, Wyo., Business Management), but the Statesmen unfortunately stranded the tying run (North) at second.

North headlined the lineup with two hits, while Dreyton LaVeine (Sr., West Burlington, Iowa, Sociology) was solid on the mound by permitting just two earned runs on the nine scattered hits in a complete-game effort.

William Penn put runners in scoring position in the first, fourth, and fifth frames, but could not bring them all the way around.

“This was again not a great day for us as injuries continue to keep a couple of our top starters down,” Head Coach Mike Laird said. “Additionally, big errors hurt us, while Grand View’s pitching kept most of our hitters in check with the exception of Hector Dominguez, Aiden North, and Ened Perez all finishing with multiple hits on the day. However, we need to have others step up if we are going to score enough.”