Statesmen Give Two Away Late Against Grand View
An early lead by Penn was quickly erased by Grand View, as the Vikings came from behind to win.
Oskaloosa–The William Penn baseball team had a pair of wins in its sights, but could not slam the door shut as it was swept by rival Grand View in a Heart of America Athletic Conference doubleheader Saturday.
WPU (19-25, 7-21 Heart) lost by scores of 8-6 and 6-5. The programs will meet again Sunday in another twinbill at 1 p.m.
The visitors put the first run on the board in the top of the first, but the navy and gold came right back. A wild pitch allowed Jeysen Delgado (Jr., Harbor City, Calif., Kinesiology) to tie the game at 1-1 after one frame.
Dominik Sawyer (Sr., Chula Vista, Calif., Psychology and Human Services) then gave the Statesmen their first lead as he cleared the left field fence, also scoring Cory Russell (Sr., El Cajon, Calif., Education). The roundtripper is Sawyer’s second of 2017.
The two-run advantage was extended to 6-1 in the fourth. Sawyer started the inning by tallying his third RBI with a double that plated Aaron Petrash (Fr., North Miami, Fla., Digital Communication). A double from Anthony Aguila (Jr., Highland, Calif., Kinesiology) then scored Nick Worcester (Fr., Bloomingdale, Ill., Physical Education), while Jared Goodman (Jr., Huntington Beach, Calif., Physical Education) singled home Aguila.
Unfortunately, the Vikings (25-18, 15-9 Heart) did not flinch, tallying four runs in the fifth. GVU then tied the matchup at 6-6 with a run in the sixth and claimed the lead for good with a two-run seventh inning.
The Statesmen, who were outhit 14-10, were paced by two hits from Delgado, Sawyer, Aguila (also walked once), and Goodman. Russell reached base three times as well with one base knock, one walk, and one hit-by-pitch.
The home crew struggled in the field with five errors. Starting pitcher D.J. Milam (Jr., Lancaster, Calif., Business Management) was the victim of some of those fielding mistakes as three of the eight GVU runs were unearned. The junior recorded four strikeouts in the loss.
Delgado also managed WPU’s first run in the nightcap. The Vikings answered with two runs in the second, though, in a back-and-forth contest that featured five lead changes.
The navy and gold went ahead again with two runs in the fourth, only to give the edge right back to Grand View in the top of the fifth with two runs. William Penn did not let the Vikings keep the lead for long, though, with two more scores in the bottom of the fifth. A single by Fabian Gutierrez (Jr., Selah, Wash., Communications) brought home Julian Villegas (Jr., Wilmington, Calif., Sociology) and then T.J. Murphy (Jr., Woodenville, Wash., Exercise Science) drove in Aguila by drawing a bases-loaded walk.
Unfortunately, the nightcap had the same ending as the opener with GVU scoring once in the sixth and once more in the seventh.
The Statesmen lost the hits battle 10-7 with Villegas and Aguila both producing two hits. Gutierrez got on base a trio of times with one hit, one walk, and one hit-by-pitch.
The hosts again had issues on the defensive end with four fielding mistakes as only two of the five runs that starter Nick Seipel (Jr., Rosemont, Minn., Software Engineering) permitted were earned. The junior struck out two batters in six innings of work.
