School Records Broken as Statesmen Split Four-Game Set with Yellowjackets
Lamoni–The William Penn baseball team broke or tied a few school records as it split a four-game series against Graceland in Heart of America Athletic Conference play Friday and Saturday.
The Statesmen (21-14, 9-11 Heart) took the first game 11-3 before dropping Friday’s nightcap by a score of 9-8 (8 innings). WPU then won Saturday’s opener 32-17 before dropping the final game of the weekend 10-4.
WPU 11, Graceland 3
GU got on the board first in the opener, putting up two runs in the first inning. WPU responded in the second inning as Nathan Jessell (Jr., Napa, Calif., Sociology) led off with a walk and eventually scored on a single by Blair Speas (So., O’Fallon, Mo., Undecided).
The home team expanded upon its lead in the third inning behind a home run, but the navy and gold then turned up their efforts with five runs in the fourth. Back-to-back singles from Justin Martinez (Jr., Bronx, N.Y., Sports Management) and Jessell and a two-run double by Abraham Arroyo (So., Camuy, P.R., Wellness and Recreation) tied the game at 3-3. A few batters later, Tim Jean (Sr., Libertyville, Ill., Public Accounting) delivered another two-run double to help the Statesmen get out to a 6-3 lead.
William Penn kept the runs coming in the fifth inning, tallying four more. Martinez started the inning with a single before Arroyo tripled to the left-center gap. Speas then dropped a sacrifice bunt to bring in Arroyo from third. A sacrifice fly to right field by Franklin Aparicio (Sr., Panama City, Panama, Business Management) plated Leland Riley II (Fr., Victorville, Calif., Kinesiology), while Speas scored on a Jean single and a GU error.
Jean’s RBI single in the seventh wrapped up the scoring.
WPU outhit the Yellowjackets 12-7 with Jean leading the charge at 3-for-5 with three RBIs. Arroyo had two base knocks as well with three RBIs. Four players scored two times each.
Brian Thomas (Jr., Shingle Springs, Calif., Sports Management) went six innings as the starter, allowing three runs on six hits while striking out five batters and walking one. Austin Waterhouse (Jr., Keota, Iowa, Sports Management) allowed one hit in a scoreless seventh frame.
Graceland 9, WPU 8
The second bout saw Graceland again get on the board first as it managed one run in the first inning. The Statesmen answered in the third inning as Jean was driven in on a sacrifice fly by Joel Holguin (So., San Bernardino, Calif., Sociology).
Unfortunately, the Yellowjackets got the runs back and then some with three in the fourth.
Aparicio then highlighted a two-run fifth as he left the park with a solo home run.
The sixth inning saw WPU add two more runs to its total, beginning with a leadoff one-bagger from Dillan Schrock (Sr., Shingle Springs, Calif., Sociology). His pinchrunner E.J. Roncone (Jr., Gurnee, Ill., Sports Management) eventually scored a couple batters later on a Nick George (Jr., Sarina, Ontario, Sociology) single as the Statesmen took a 5-4 lead. Unfortunately, Graceland responded with three runs to take 7-5 lead.
Down two entering its final at-bats, WPU was able to tie it up as Aparicio singled in Jessell, while a bases-loaded wild pitch allowed Speas to also come in.
After two quick outs for the navy and gold in the top of the eighth inning, Arroyo singled and later scored on an error. Unfortunately, the home team tallied two runs in the bottom of the inning to walk-off and take the second game of the series 9-8.
George tossed 5 1/3 innings as the starter, striking out three. Bret Whiffen (Jr., Green Bay, Wis., Exercise Science) came on in relief and went 1 2/3 frames, allowing only one hit with one strikeout.
Aparicio finished with three hits with three RBIs, while George and Jessell also finished with three hits. Jean, Arroyo, and Schrock all finished with two base knocks as well.
WPU 32, Graceland 17
After a close second bout, both teams put up football-like numbers in Saturday’s opener. William Penn got on the board first with four first-inning runs, headlined by a two-run double from Trevor Dooley (Jr., Prole, Iowa, Computer Science).
The second inning saw another four runs behind a three-run home run via Riley II.
The home team scored twice in the bottom of the second and then once more in the third before the navy and gold had an explosive 10-run fourth inning, paced by a three-run double from Riley II and a two-run homer from Arroyo to take an 18-3 lead.
WPU tacked on four more in the fifth; Jean had the biggest hit with a two-run single. A grand slam by Arroyo highlighted a six-run sixth, while a trio of run-scoring singles in the seventh finished off WPU’s record outing.
The 32 runs sets a new single-game school record, breaking the old record of 31 which came against Eastern Mennonite in 1994.
Not only was the team’s run record broken, but so was the individual mark as George scored six times, setting a new mark (since 1999). Jean, Jessell, and Arroyo also all rounded the pads four times.
Riley II drove in nine runs, tying a school record for RBIs as well (since 1999). Arroyo’s two roundtrippers led to six RBIs of his own.
Overall, the Statesmen had 23 hits with George topping the way with four. Jean, Jessell, Riley II, and Dooley each had three base knocks as well.
Graceland 10, WPU 4
The final game of the series saw the home team tally four runs in the first inning and never look back Graceland tacked one more in the second and an additional five later in the matchup as it took a 10-0 lead heading into the seventh inning.
Arroyo finally helped the Statesmen break through in the seventh with a grand slam, but it was all the navy and gold could muster in the setback.
Arroyo finished the game with two hits along with four RBIs, while George, Jessell, and Speas also finished with two hits.
Reece Umbarger (So., Overland Park, Kan., Business Management) pitched two solid innings of relief, allowing just one run on one hit, while Whiffen did not permit a run nor a hit in the sixth frame.
Next Up: The Statesmen will travel down to Mount Pleasant Wednesday to face Iowa Wesleyan for a single, nine-inning non-conference game at 1 p.m.
