FORT WORTH, Texas – Offense was the order of the day on Friday afternoon at Sycamore Park in Fort Worth. There, the Mid-America Christian University and Texas Wesleyan University baseball teams combined for 21 runs on 32 hits as the teams opened a weekend set.
MACU (18-32, 7-18 SAC) took a 10-7 lead late in the game, but NAIA #20 Texas Wesleyan scored two runs in the eighth, and two more in the ninth, as the Rams (32-13, 18-7 SAC) came from behind to take the win 11-10.
MACU drew first blood in the top of the second inning. Junior Aracena and Axel Poesmans each ripped RBI doubles in the frame, as Aracena and Logan Gipson scored to give MACU the 2-0 lead.
The lead lasted into the bottom of the fourth frame, when two of the first three rams to bat in the frame lofted homers against MACU starter Keisy Portorreal. The Rams eventually scored four runs in the frame to take a 4-2 lead, but MACU answered in the top of the fifth.
Luis Sanchez singled home Antonio Dorado in the fifth to cut the deficit to 4-3, and in the sixth, MACU surged back in front. Dorado knocked in Kevin Lentzner when he reached on an error, and he later scored on a single from Felix Martinez to cap the 3-run rally as MACU took the lead back at 6-4.
The Rams scored a run in the bottom of the sixth, and two more in the bottom of the seventh to reclaim the lead at 7-6, but again, MACU had an offensive answer. Diego Pichardo doubled with the bases loaded to score Lentzner and Trey Jackson, and Pichardo later came home on a base hit from Sanchez as MACU built a 10-7 lead with six outs to get.
Unfortunately for MACU, the Rams were not dissuaded. A single and a homer to start the bottom of the eighth frame set the stage for a two run ninth, as the Rams walked off on a single from Donnie Lopez to end the game in an 11-10 win for Texas Wesleyan.
Dusty Cloud (2-0) worked a perfect eighth inning to earn the victory for the Rams, while Gustavo Escobar (0-3) took the loss by allowing four earned runs on four hits in 1-plus innings of work.
All nine MACU starters had hits in the game, and six of the nine – Dorado, Pichardo, Martinez, Sanchez, Gipson, and Poesmans – had two hits each. Poesmans doubled twice in the gamel and Dorado, Pichardo, Gipson, and Aracena each doubled once. Dorado added three runs scored, Lentzner and Jackson each scored twice, and Pichardo and Martinez each had two RBIs.
The teams will wrap up their series – and with it the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season – on Saturday with a double-header slated for 12 p.m.
