Late Game Heroics Help Statesmen Split
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
Oskaloosa—The William Penn Statesmen (11-20, 4-12 Heart) hosted Evangel University (21-18, 13-7 Heart) in a conference doubleheader on Thursday. The Statesmen entered the game looking to snap a five game skid.
They were able to do just that as it took 13 innings to knock off Evangel in game one by a score of 4-3. The Statesmen would drop game two however, 6-2, to earn the split.
WPU 4, Evangel 3
It took 13 innings, but a plethora of solid pitching performances and clutch hitting gave the Statesmen the victory in game one.
D.J. Milam (Sr., Lancaster, Calif., Business Management) started on the mound for the home team and lasted 6.2 innings, allowing 3 earned runs, and striking out 3. The combination of Trent Barnett (Jr., Eddyville, Iowa, Accounting) and Tanner Hamblin (So., Salem, Utah, Undecided) threw 6.1 innings of shutout baseball out of the bullpen.
The scoring got started for WPU when Fabio Espinosa (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Wellness and Recreation) scored on a ground ball put in play by Nathan Ball (Jr., Moses Lake, Wash., Psychology). Espinosa led off the inning with a single and stole a base in the sequence.
After giving up 2 runs, the Statesmen entered the bottom of the 7th down 3-1.
Nick Worcester (So., Bloomingdale, Ill., Physical Education) started the 7th inning with a single to left field, followed by a game-tying two run homerun off the bat of Isaiah Almanza (Jr., Deming, N.M., Exercise Science).
The game would remain tied until the bottom of the 13th inning.
It took two hitters for the Statesmen to finish the visitors in the bottom of the 13th. Seth Reisbeck (Jr., Meridian, Idaho, History/Government) began the inning with a triple to deep right-center field. Ball then proceeded to single with the infield drawn in to give the Statesmen the walk-off win.
Hamblin took the win on the mound while Almanza finished the game 2-6 with 2 RBI and a run scored.
Evangel 6, WPU 2
WPU would suffer a setback in game two as the Evangel bats were just too much late in the game.
Augie Voight (Jr., Waukegan, Ill., Secondary Education) would take the hill and go 4 innings while surrendering 2 runs on 5 hits while striking out a pair.
The Statesmen would go down two runs but scratch back to tie the game in the bottom of the 4th on an RBI single off the bat of Reisbeck, scoring Espinosa.
Michael Keegan (Sr., South San Francisco, Calif., Industrial Technology) threw a perfect inning out of the bullpen and Julian Villegas (Sr., Wilmington, Calif., Sociology) had a multi-hit game going 2-4 in the contest.
Next Up: William Penn will travel to Lincoln, Ill. to take on Lincoln Christian in a non-conference doubleheader on Monday, April 9, starting at 1 p.m.
