Statesmen Earn Series Split Against Grenadiers
William Penn University Athletics
by Wade Steinlage
New Albany, Ind.—William Penn baseball continued its road trip as they took on Indiana Southeast in a doubleheader, a day after the two teams split the first pair of games.
The result proved to be the same as the Statesmen (10-3) split once again with the Grenadiers (7-5) with both teams having a game when the sticks were hot.
IUS 12, WPU 1
Unfortunately, game one was a setback for WPU as they were held to just two hits in the game as Grenadier starting pitcher Breden Bube was excellent through five innings.
William Penn looked like they were ready to rally out of the gate as they loaded the bases with nobody out but managed to only muster one run on an error by the left fielder off the bat of Blaze Speas (Sr., O’Fallon, Mo., Wellness and Recreation).
Adrian Garcia (Jr., Ontario, Calif., Mechanical Engineering) and Dominic Bravo (Jr., Downey, Calif., Digital Communication) were the only two to break into the hit column, both finishing 1-2. Bravo collected his third double of the young season, which is tied for second on the team.
IUS 3, WPU 11
The Statesmen bats woke up for game two as they put up 11 runs on 13 hits. The scoring started in the top of the second on an RBI groundout courtesy of Jarrett Hunt (Jr., Logan, Utah, Digital Communication), scoring Nick Worcester (Jr., Bloomingdale, Ill., Physical Education). Speas then followed by crossing home plate on a wild pitch.
The navy and gold broke out in a big way, tallying seven runs in the fourth. Boston Romero (Sr., Fairfield, Calif., Sociology) highlighted the scoring with a two-RBI double to right field. Tanner Bedier (Fr., Bondurant, Iowa, Business Management), Nathan Ball (Sr., Moses Lake, Wash., Psychology), Speas and Hunt all collected a RBI in the inning.
The visiting William Penn added on for good measure the following inning, tacking on two more runs highlighted by a Ball RBI double that scored Worcester.
Seven hitters managed to log at least one hit with Speas and Bedier each collecting three apiece.
Augie Voight (Sr., Waukeegan, Ill., Secondary Education) started on the hill and allowed two earned runs in 3.1 innings of work while striking out five. Trent Barnett (Sr., Eddyville, Iowa, Accounting) was terrific in relief throwing 1.2 scoreless innings and striking out four.
Next Up: WPU will open conference play taking on Baker in Baldwin City, Kansas on March 2, with first pitch scheduled for 1 pm.
