William Penn Drops Heart Openers to CMU

William Penn University Athletics

Fayette, Mo.–Two unfortunate innings marred an otherwise strong day for the Statesmen baseball team as it was swept by Central Methodist to open Heart of America Athletic Conference action Sunday.

WPU (10-7, 0-2 Heart) lost by scores of 4-3 and 18-3. The team will look to bounce back immediately as it travels to Marshall, Mo. Monday to face Missouri Valley in another Heart twinbill.

The visitors, behind another stout performance by hurler Felipe Hernandez (Jr., North Hollywood, Calif., Sociology), had the Eagles (16-4, 2-0 Heart) on the ropes in the opener. The squad tallied a run in the first frame and then doubled the advantage in the fifth when Anthony Aguila (Jr., Highland, Calif., Kinesiology) brought in Jeysen Delgado (Jr., Harbor City, Calif., Kinesiology) with a double.

William Penn made it 3-0 in the sixth frame on a single via the bat of Dominik Sawyer (Sr., Chula Vista, Calif., Psychology and Human Services) that plated Wilson Lorenzo (So., Fort Myers, Fla., Computer Science).

Hernandez, who tossed a no-hitter last month, permitted just one base knock through six innings. The junior struck out six against five walks and was in line to claim the victory entering the final frame.

Unfortunately, he was removed after allowing the first two batters to reach, and then WPU’s relievers could not shut the door as Central Methodist scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh to rally for the victory.

Aguila finished 2-for-3 as the Statesmen outhit the home team 5-4.

The Eagles carried the momentum from their last-inning heroics into the nightcap, scoring one run in the bottom of the first.

The floodgates then somehow burst open in the third as CMU ran 15 players across home plate to put the contest away. William Penn was outhit 18-6 in the loss (the home team had 12 of its hits in the third). Julian Villegas (Jr., Wilmington, Calif., Sociology) posted two hits and Delgado scored a pair of runs