FORT WORTH, Texas – On Saturday afternoon, the Mid-America Christian University baseball team played two very different games against NAIA #20 Texas Wesleyan University. The first game was a shootout, while the second game was an extra inning pitchers' duel, and at the end of the day, MACU had claimed a split of the double-header.
MACU (19-33, 8-19 SAC) plated 13 runs in the two games, but it took an 8-inning gem from senior Reid Wall to help the Evangels earn a split with the Rams (33-14, 19-8 SAC). Texas Wesleyan took game one 15-10 before MACU took the series finale 3-1 in eight innings.
Texas Wesleyan stormed out of the gate in the first ballgame. The Rams scored five runs on two home runs and three doubles in the first inning, and in the second frame, two more doubles helped the Rams build a 9-0 lead after two innings.
Diego Pichardo singled in the top of the third to get MACU on the board, and the Evangels scored two more runs on a two out error to close to within six at 9-3. The Rams added a run in the bottom of the third, but MACU kept the offense rolling in the fourth. Kevin Lentzner lifted a sacrifice fly to left-center to score Junior Aracena, and Pichardo singled home two more runs with one out in the inning, and MACU closed the gap to 10-6. Raymond Rodriguez singled home Logan Gipson in the fifth to pull the Evangels within three at 10-7, but that was as close as MACU was able to get.
The Rams scored three times in the bottom of the fifth, and twice more in the sixth to push their lead to 15-7, and though the Evangels were able to add three runs in the top of the seventh, MACU fell in the game 15-10.
Stephen Yancey (8-4) earned the win, going four innings and yielding seven runs on six hits, four walks, and three strikeouts. Ben Donnell (4-4) took the loss, lasting an inning and a third and giving up nine runs on eight hits.
Pichardo and Rodriguez each had three hits in the game, and Pichardo picked up four RBIs in the game. Gipson doubled and singled, and Lentzner singled twice as well. Rodriguez and Lentzner also scored two runs apiece.
The series finale proceeded scoreless into the sixth inning, as Reid Wall and two Texas Wesleyan pitchers engaged in a pitchers' duel. Junior Aracena picked up an RBI on a bases loaded walk to give MACU its first lead of the day, but in the bottom of the inning, a two-out single from Ted Wisdom tied the game at one. Neither team was able to score in the seventh, and the game proceeded to extra innings.
Luis Sanchez singled to open the eighth inning, and Gipson followed with a bunt single, and after a wild pitch, Aracena singled home Sanchez to give MACU the lead at 2-1. Rodriguez followed as the next hitter with an RBI single of his own, and the Evangels took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the inning. Wall worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and the Evangels took the win, 3-1.
Wall (3-2) scattered six hits in eight inning, and he gave up one earned run, two walks, and seven strikeouts in the win. Alex Davis (3-3) gave up two runs on five hits in an inning and a third to take the loss.
Sanchez singled twice in the game, and six other Evangels had hits in the game as well. Aracena drove in two runs in the game, and Pichardo, Gipson, and Sanchez each tallied a run as well.
MACU will wrap up their regular season on Monday afternoon when they head north to Winfield, Kansas to take on the Southwestern College Moundbuilders (20-23). First pitch of the twin bill is slated for Noon.
