William Penn Drops Twinbill in Kansas City
Kansas City, Mo. – The Statesmen baseball team dropped both of its matchups against Avila it is final nonconference series before entering conference play this weekend.
WPU (9-8) was ousted against the Eagles despite only allowing runs in two innings in its first game.
Avila 7 – WPU 5
Down 3-0 early, the visitors took until the fourth inning to respond as Keoni Young (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev., Exercise Science) grounded out as McGwire Jephson (Jr., Rigby, Idaho, Business Management) scored an unearned run.
After a perfect inning by Andrei Gordeev (Sr., Balashikha, Russia, Business Management) the bars kept going as Andres Pineda (Sr., Cartagena, Colombia, Business Management) hit a two-RBI double to left field that scored Jackson Conjardi (Sr., Schaumberg, Ill., Education) and Abraham Arroyo (Grad., Camuy, P.R., Master’s of Sports Management), giving the Statesmen a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth before Avila grabbed four more in the bottom of the frame.
The Statesmen grabbed one more run in the top of the seventh inning, when Jagger Mitchell (Sr., Rock Springs, Wyo., Business Management) made it home thanks to a ground out from Pineda, before dropping the first contest.
Aiden North (Jr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Industrial Technology), Leland Riley II (Sr., Victorville, Calif., Kinesiology), and Pineda each earned a hit, while Abraham Arroyo (Grad., Camuy, P.R., Master’s of Sports Management), Jephson, Conjardi, Mitchell, and Pineda each had a run.
Pineda led the Statesmen with three RBIs in game one.
Garrett Neiman (Jr., Arvada, Colo., Sports Management) came in for relief and gave up no runs in his 1 1/3 innings of work.
Avila 13 – WPU 9
A host Statesmen pitchers could not slow down Avila as four different pitchers saw action in the nightcap.
Anthony Estrada (Jr., Santa Clarita, Calif., Political Science) was the starter as the Eagles got out to a 1-0 in the top of the first inning.
The Statesmen tied the game at one apiece in the top of the second when Pineda reached on a fielder’s choice and Arroyo made it home.
It the third inning, Riley hit a two-RBI single, scoring Young and North, to give William Penn a 3-1 lead.
Avila got hot and was able to work to a 7-3 lead by the end of the fourth inning.
Mitchel and Pineda each earned an RBI in the top of the fifth when they worked Arroyo and Logan Bialek (Jr., South Elgin, Ill., Exercise Science) home.
The Eagles scored six more runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it a 13-5 game.
William Penn tried for a rally in the seventh inning when Pineda singled to center field and Arroyo made it home. Pineda and Bialek scored next on a double to right field from Jephson. He made it home for the final run of the day when Shane Mailloux (So., Santee, Calif., Business Management) hit an RBI double to right center field.
Arroyo went 3-for-4 from the plate and earned three runs in the loss. Jephson also had two hits, while Bialek made it home twice. North earned two walks during the game.
Peyton Locke (Fr., Capital City, Mo., Kinesiology) closed the contest form the mound where he threw 1 2/3 innings for a hit and an earned run.
“We were beaten by a better team today.” Head Coach Mike Laird said. “Our pitching struggled to establish and maintain advantage counts. A lot of hit batters and some walks coupled with some sporadic defense doomed us each game”
Next Up: William Penn opens conference play at home on Saturday in a doubleheader at 1 p.m.
