Statesmen Wrap Up 2018 with Split Against PSC
William Penn University Men’s Baseball 2018 (file photo)
by Wade Steinlage
Oskaloosa–The William Penn baseball team ended its 2018 campaign on a positive note as it split a Heart of America Athletic Conference doubleheader with Peru State Saturday.
William Penn (15-30, 8-22 Heart), which did not qualify for next week’s Heart Postseason Tournament, dropped the opener 5-2, but took the season-ending nightcap 8-7.
The Bobcats (28-18, 18-13 Heart) opened the day’s scoring with one run in the third and then pulled away with four more in the fourth.
The hosts, who were outhit 8-6, finally got things going in the seventh, but it was too little, too late with just two runs coming across. Julian Villegas (Sr., Wilmington, Calif., Sociology) drove in both runs on a single that plated seniors Phillip Berman (Sr., Long Beach, Calif., Education) and Jared Goodman (Sr., Huntington Beach, Calif., Physical Education).
Nick Seipel (Sr., Rosemont, Minn., Software Engineering) tallied two strikeouts in five innings of work, while Michael Keegan (Sr., South San Francisco, Calif., Industrial Technology) and Isaac Lueth (Sr., Grinnell, Iowa, Secondary Education) were each credited with one K out of the bullpen.
Peru State managed to get on the board first in the second contest as well with one tally in the first inning. Fortunately, the Statesmen carried over some of that late-inning momentum into the nightcap and knotted the matchup with one run in the second. Berman brought in Tanner Hamblin (So., Salem, Utah, Undecided) on a sacrifice fly to make it 1-1.
The Bobcats pulled back ahead at 2-1 in the top of the third, but William Penn claimed the advantage for good with a five-run bottom half. The navy and gold chipped away at PSC’s starting pitcher as all five of their hits were singles. Berman had the biggest base knock with a two-run one-bagger that plated Hamblin and Fabio Espinosa (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn., Wellness and Recreation).
WPU extended the advantage to 8-3 in the fifth courtesy of a two-run single off the bat of Nick Worcester (So., Bloomingdale, Ill., Physical Education) that brought around Espinosa and Goodman.
The two runs would be very important down the stretch as the visiting team rallied for four seventh-inning runs, but failed to plate the tying run to allow William Penn to close out 2018 with a victory.
WPU, which had to overcome four fielding errors, outhit PSC 10-6. The trio of Hamblin, Espinosa, and Seth Reisbeck (Jr., Meridian, Idaho, History/Government) all finished with two hits.
Nick Bruns (Jr., Frankfort, Ill., Sports Management) produced the best outing of the three Statesmen hurlers who stepped onto the mound, permitting just one walk in two scoreless innings of relief work.
The twinbill ends the collegiate careers of seniors Berman, Goodman, Keegan, Lueth, D.J. Milam (Sr., Lancaster, Calif., Business Management), Austin Neff (Sr., Hanna City, Ill., Psychology), Seipel, and Villegas.
