Statesmen Stay in Playoff Hunt after Sweeping Wildcats
Oskaloosa, Iowa — The Statesmen baseball kept its conference playoff hopes alive when it swept its first doubleheader in Canton, Missouri against conference opponent Culver-Stockton on Friday.
William Penn (22-21, 1-11) rode a large fourth inning to take the first game 7-3, before an offense explosion led the navy and gold to a 21-6 victory in game two.
WPU 7 – C-SC 3
The Statesmen and Wildcats (16-30, 12-10) went through the first three and a half innings before allowing a run. William Penn broke the deadlock in the bottom of the fourth frame when Jagger Mitchell (Sr., Rock Springs, Wyo., Business Management) was hit by a pitch and forced Abraham Arroyo (Grad., Camuy, P.R., Master’s of Sports Management) home. Andres Pineda (Sr., Cartagena, Colombia, Business Management) delivered in the next at bar with an RBI-single that scored Keoni Young (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev., Exercise Science). McGwire Jephson (Jr., Rigby, Idaho, Business Management) followed him with a two-RBI single up the middle that saw Mitchell and Shane Mailloux (So., Santee, Calif., Business Management) make it home. Pineda made it home himself when Aiden North (Jr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Industrial Technology) hit an RBI single. The Statesmen scoring concluded when Arroyo hit a two-RBI single where Jephson earned a run and Logan Bialek (Jr., South Elgin, Ill., Exercise Science) scored an unearned run.
The Wildcats scored three runs over the next three innings before the Statesmen held on for the win.
Jephson, Bialek, Arroyo, Young, Mailloux, Mitchell, and Pineda each earned a run, while North, Arroyo, and Mailloux each had a pair of hits. Jephson and Arroyo also had two RBIs.
Erik Mejia Jr. (So., Las Vegas, Nev., Exercise Science) earned the win with seven innings of work, giving up seven hits with three runs and only two walks with five strikeouts.
WPU 21 – C-SC 6
The Statesmen got the bats going early in the nightcap when Young hit a three-run bomb down the left field line in the top of the first frame.
The Wildcats grabbed a run in the bottom half before William Penn scored another run in the top of the second on an RBI-single by Jephson and Ened Perez (Jr., Orocovis, P.R., Kinesiology) earning the run to push the lead to 4-1.
After a three-up and three-down half inning for C-SC, the navy and gold uncorked its offense, scoring eight runs in the third, highlighted by Mitchell hammering a two-run RBI double down the left field line that Mailloux and Sawyer Hardman (Jr., American Fork, Utah, Kinesiology) scored on.
The Wildcats scored two more runs in the fourth inning to make it 12-3 enter the fifth.
William Penn pushed its lead a bit more when the inning rolled over as Jephson scored on an unearned run and Young made it on base due to an error. Hardman then hit an RBI double down the right field line as Kazin Miller (Fr., Ottumwa, Iowa, Sociology with an Emphasis in Criminology) scored the run.
The fifth inning was only an appetizer for a seven-run sixth frame for the Statesmen. Pineda got the side started with an RBI double to score Perez on an unearned run. Perez finished the inning’s scoring with an RBI of his own when he grounded into a double play as Young scored a run to push the Statesmen lead to 21-3.
The Wildcats grabbed three more runs in the bottom of the sixth before Peyton Locke (Fr., Capital City, Mo., Kinesiology) and the Statesmen defense shut them down for the sweep.
Jephson led the squad with four runs, Young and Perez had three, while Arroyo, Mitchell, Bialek, and Pineda each had two.
Jephson and Young led the team at the plate, each going 4-for-5. North, Hardman, Mailloux, Mitchell, and Pineda each had two hits apiece.
Young also led squad with five RBIs, while Hardman and Pineda each earned a three. North and Mitchell also earned a pair in the win.
