STERLING, Kan. – On Saturday afternoon, the Southwestern College baseball team concluded their weekend Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) series on the road against the Sterling College Warriors. A pair of battles were played to decide the winner of the three-game set, as Sterling managed to take the first game of the day with a 12-1 win in seven innings. In the second tilt, the Moundbuilders looked as if they were waltzing to an easy victory through the first half of the ballgame, leading 7-0 after three-and-a-half, but eight unanswered runs earned the Warriors a sweep and upended Southwestern's hopes in the 8-7 Builder loss.
A strong start by the pitching staffs of both squads in the first inning resulted in a scoreless opening stanza, but the Builders broke the tie by scoring the first run of the ballgame in the top of the second. Three total hits were tallied in the inning, as well as a Warrior error, as the one Builder run came in on Noah Prince's RBI single through the left side of the infield. The hit scored Landon Tinsman from third, giving the Builders a 1-0 lead.
In the third inning, Sterling finally struck with a multi-run inning on offense. Three runs on three hits and a Moundbuilder error put the Warriors up 3-1 after three. The first of the three runs in the inning was scored on a single and an error by the SC left fielder, and the remaining two tallies crossed the plate on a two-run double.
Only one hit was tallied by Southwestern over the final five innings of the battle, as they struggled to put together meaningful at-bats. Sterling would score four runs in the fourth inning, along with five more in the sixth, which made it a 12-1 game with only one chance for the Moundbuilders to keep the game going in the top of the seventh.
The SC hitters were retired in order in the seventh, resulting in a 12-1 loss in seven innings for the Builders in the first matchup on Saturday.
For the Builders, it would be important to get their offense going early on in game two, and they did exactly that by putting up two runs in the first inning. An RBI single from Marcus Burton, which scored London Penland, scored the first run of the stanza. Later in the frame, a bases-loaded walk to Trevor Abitia forced home Joseph Finder to give SC a 2-0 lead.
Following Sterling's failure to score in the bottom of the first, Burton supplied the Builders with another run-scoring single in the top of the second. Southwestern would hold their 3-0 lead until the top of the fourth frame.
An additional four runs would come across for SC in the top of inning number four, making it a 7-0 Moundbuilder lead with three-and-a-half innings to play. A two-run triple by Penland, scoring Skyler Espinoza and Travis Popenhagen, began the inning for the Builders. Then, a sacrifice fly by Finder to score Penland and an RBI single by Josh Crabtree to send home Burton rounded out the scoring in the frame.
Finally, the Warriors would answer with a three-run jack in the bottom of the fourth, as they nearly cut the Builder lead in half. The homer made it 7-3 entering the fifth.
Things continued to trend the way of the Warriors in the bottom of the fifth, as they scored two more runs on wild pitches in the inning to make it just a two-run 7-5 game.
A period of three straight half innings without runs led into the deciding bottom of the seventh frame, as the Warriors would need two runs to tie and three runs to win the final bout of the weekend. After a hit-by-pitch and a walk, followed by a sac bunt to move the runners into scoring postion, Sterling ended the game with one massive swing of the bat. They launched a walk-off three-run homer to left field to sink the Builders and complete the weekend sweep.
After struggling mightily on offense in game one, the Builders straightened things out in the latter battle of the day, but went dormant over the final few innings of the matchup. Sterling scored eight unanswered to end the game, due in part to the late-inning woes for the Moundbuilder offense. Tilt number one saw SC sport only four hits, three of which came in the second inning. Will Johannsen led the squad with two hits in the game, while both Tinsman and Prince had the remaining knocks. The seven-inning game was a different story. Burton (3-for-4, 3B, 2 RBI, R), Penland (2-for-4, 3B, 2 RBI, 2 R, SB) and Chris Weatherford (2-for-4, SB) each boasted multi-hit efforts. Single hits from Jo. Crabtree, Logan Gage and Brady Johnson completed the list of base hits for the Moundbuilders on the day.
Gannon Dow's performance on the hill began nicely, as he started with two hitless innings, but he and the SC defense afforded the Warriors seven runs (four earned) over the next 2.2 innings. He allowed a total of five hits in 4.2 frames with seven strikeouts and five walks. Reyden Rull gave up four runs total, with just one of those being earned over the next 0.2 innings and walked two batters. Dylan Navarrette would finish the game off with 0.2 innings of work, walking one batter and allowing one unearned tally.
Nathan Simmons provided a quality effort on the hill for the Builders in the second tilt, as he was able to complete 4.1 innings of work and allowed five runs on just four hits. He struck out two batters and walked three in his outing. Braden Ash followed him out of the pen and provided 1.2 innings of solid work, though he did allow two of the inherited runners from Simmons to score. Otherwise, just one hit was surrendered by Ash, as he punched out two and walked only one. Jacob Woodburn did not have his command in this one, as he came into the seventh inning looking for the save. He allowed three runs on the homer, after an HBP and a walk, earning the loss in the battle.
Southwestern's (8-26, 2-16 KCAC) losing streak has ballooned to an 11-game stretch with the two losses on Saturday, as the squad will look forward to the next chance to get back on track in the KCAC against the No. 13-ranked Eagles of Oklahoma Wesleyan University on Tuesday, Apr. 4 in Bartlesville, Okla.
--buildersports.com--
