Statesmen Take Important Game at SAU
William Penn University Athletics
Davenport–The William Penn baseball team inched closer to qualifying for the postseason with a 4-3 win over St. Ambrose in Midwest Collegiate Conference action Sunday.
Mother Nature was the first to take a toll on the weekend series as rain pushed the start of the four-game set back one day. Then the minor league Quad City River Bandits, who own the field SAU plays on, went to extra innings, forcing the teams to limit themselves to just one contest on Sunday. They will now face off three times Monday beginning at 3 p.m.
With Sunday’s victory, William Penn (19-22, 9-12 MCC) moves one full game ahead of Mount Mercy for the final spot in next week’s MCC Tournament. Just one win Monday or a loss by Mount Mercy to Clarke would lock up a spot in the tourney. Two wins against the Fighting Bees (22-19, 10-11 MCC) would secure the #4 seed for the Statesmen.
In a contest that featured the visitors holding a 14-8 edge in hits, Kenny Hall (Sr., Morgan Hill., Calif., Exercise Science) came home on a suicide squeeze sacrifice bunt by William Vazquez (So., North Hollywood, Calif., General Accounting). St. Ambrose knotted the contest with a run in the bottom of the third.
Cory DeRush (Sr., Grand Junction, Colo., Business Management) then led off the fifth with a single and later scored. The hosts answered again with one run in the bottom half.
Another one-bagger by Hall started the sixth and pinchrunner Ryan Marshall (Sr., Quartz Hill, Calif., Sociology) made it 3-2 with his score. Unfortunately, St. Ambrose replied right away to draw it even at 3-3 entering the final frame.
Patrick Roxbury (Sr., Canyon, Calif., Sociology) posted a one-out single in the seventh and eventually came around on a pinch-hit single by Steven Sattz (Jr., Pickering, Ontario, Physical Education) for the go-ahead run.
Josh Ruiz (Sr., Chula Vista, Calif., General Mathematics) loaded the bases in the bottom part, but his fifth and final strikeout ended the contest. Ruiz, now 6-1, permitted three earned runs on eight hits; he also walked four. The senior worked out of another bases-loaded jam in the third as well.
Roxbury and J.P. Rios (Jr. San Diego, Calif., Business Management) were both a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate, while Hall and Connor Sutton (Jr., Gilroy, Calif., Sociology) finished 2-for-3. Sutton also walked once. DeRush had a 2-for-4 showing as well.
