WPU Stays in Tournament in Consolation Bracket
Ozark, Mo.–The Statesmen baseball team fought to see another day of competition as it went 1-1 Friday, falling to #2 seed MidAmerica Nazarene before knocking out #6 Grand View at the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship.
#8 seed WPU (24-26), which entered the day in the winner’s bracket after defeating Peru State Thursday, dropped to the consolation side with an 8-4 loss to MNU. The squad rebounded, though, staying alive with a 12-10 victory over GVU.
The Statesmen were outhit 12-6 against the Pioneers (33-16), but were even on the scoreboard after seven innings of action.
MidAmerica Nazarene scored first with one run in both the first and second frames. William Penn answered back in the bottom of the second, however, with RBI singles from Leland Riley II (So., Victorville, Calif., Kinesiology) and Marco Ayala (So., San Francisco, Calif., New Media) to knot the score at 2-2.
MNU went back ahead at 4-2 with one run each in the fourth and the seventh, but the Statesmen still had plenty of fight left in their tank.
Taking advantage of a Pioneer error, the Statesmen plated two in the bottom of the seventh via a single from Nathan Jessell (Jr., Napa, Calif., Sociology) and a sacrifice bunt from Zach Otten (Jr., Mapleton, Ill.).
Unfortunately, MNU had too much firepower, scoring four unanswered over the final two frames to pull away for the victory.
Riley paced the offense with two hits, while Abel Madueno (Jr., San Bernardino, Calif., Business Management) kept his crew in the game with eight innings of work. He allowed seven runs (five earned) on 11 hits, while striking out two and walking one.
A few hours later, the Statesmen bounced back nicely against the Vikings, a team they defeated three times last weekend to gain their berth in the league tournament. Outhit 15-12, WPU took advantage of four Grand View errors.
GVU (24-23) scored first with one run in the bottom of the first, but William Penn returned fire with three in the top of the third. Nick George (Sr., Sarina, Ontario, Sociology) doubled home Jessell and then scored himself as Abraham Arroyo (Jr., Camuy, P.R., Wellness and Recreation) sent a ball over the left field fence for a 3-1 advantage, a lead that the team would not relinquish.
The Vikings drew even in the bottom half of the inning, only to see WPU steal the two back in the fifth as George again recorded an RBI double. The senior then came around off a Grand View error.
Up 5-4 in the seventh, Justin Martinez (Sr., Bronx, N.Y., Sports Management) stretched the edge to three when he pounded a double to plate two.
The navy and gold then put the game to rest with five runs in the eighth. Aiden North (Fr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Industrial Technology) opened it up with an RBI single, while Arroyo and Hector Dominguez (So., Fontana, Calif., Exercise Science) also both pushed two across with one-baggers.
The Vikings made it more than interesting down the stretch with four runs in the eighth and two more in the ninth, but Bret Whiffen (Sr., Green Bay, Wis., Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management) closed the door with the tying run at the plate. The senior struck out three over 1 2/3 innings.
Andres Pineda (So., Cartagena, Colombia, Business Management) permitted just four runs on 10 scattered hits (three strikeouts, one walk) in six innings as William Penn’s starter.
Offensively, Arroyo was the hero with a 3-for-5 performance that included four RBIs and three runs scored. George was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and four runs scored, while North tallied a pair of base knocks in addition to one walk.
Martinez, who had two RBIs, also posted a hit and a walk, while Blair Speas (Jr., O’Fallon, Mo., New Media) and Jessell both scored twice.
“We have a very tough group of guys,” Head Coach Mike Laird said. “After a loss tough to MidAmerica Nazarene, we had a great team effort against Grand View. Andres Pineda threw well against GVU to keep us ahead and Nick George, Abraham Arroyo, and Justin Martinez all had big extra-base hits.”
Next Up: William Penn waits to see who it will play in the next round–either #1 seed Central Methodist of #4 seed Park–late on Saturday.
