By BethanySwedes.com
McPHERSON, Kan. – The Bethany College Baseball team traveled 15 miles south to McPherson to take on a three game series against McPherson College with a doubleheader Saturday (March 25th) and a single game Sunday (March 26th). The Swedes would lose the series 2-1 and improve their conference record to 3-11. (RV) McPherson College sits atop the conference with a record of 13-2 following the series win.
In game one of the series, the Swedes’ offense was kept quiet as they were not able to score any runs in the game getting shut out by the score of 0-4. Judd McCall would pitch a great game despite the line giving the Swedes a chance to win the game. McCall would go 7.1 innings with 7 hits, 4 earned runs, 9 strikeouts, and 4 walks.
Unfortunately from the offensive standpoint, the Swedes would only be able to rally off a total of 5 hits in the game. Noel Perez would hit a double to lead off the game and Joseph Rivera, Connor Crayton, Caleb Rodriguez, and Randy Good would record a single in the game. Aggressive baserunning mistakes would run them out of innings when Rivera got thrown out at third base, and Crayton picked off at second base. Defensively the Swedes would not allow an error.
Game two of the doubleheader on Saturday was filled with a ton of action and bad weather. The Bulldogs would walk-off the Swedes to win by the score of 11-12 and win the series matchup. The Swedes had the chance to win as they would jump out to an early 7 run lead but that was not enough to get past the Bulldogs offense as they would score in every inning from the 4th inning on.
Nick Flores would get the start and last 3.2 innings on 3 hits, 6 earned runs, 8 walks, and 4 strikeouts. Bryant Baez would be first in relief going 1.1 inning, 3 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, and 1 strikeout. Jacob Mallozzi would record the loss going 1.1 innings, 5 hits, 3 earned runs, and 3 strikeouts.
The Swedes offense woke up scoring 4 runs in the top of the 1st inning, 4 runs in the 3rd inning, and 3 runs in the 7th inning. In the top of the 1st inning the offense would explode for 4 runs. David Espinal would start the scoring with a single to left field, scoring Noel Perez and Joseph Rivera would be thrown out at home trying to score on the same play. Connor Crayton would pick up a single to get runners on 2nd and 1st with Willard Frizzell at the plate, he would rope a double over the center fielders head scoring two and extend the lead. Randy Good would follow up with a double of his own which would score Frizzell and give the Swedes a 4-0 lead.
In the top of the 3rd inning the Swedes would load up the bases with Randy Good stepping up to the plate. Good would get a good pitch to hit and drove it over the left-center fence for a grand slam and his first home run in conference. With the home run the Swedes would get out to an 8-1 lead. That lead would vanish when the Bulldogs would get timely hitting and a pair of long-balls to tie up the ball game. McPherson would take an 8-10 lead heading into the last half inning of the game.
Down 2 runs and the cold rain coming down harder by the second, Joseph Rivera was able to work a lead-off walk followed by a Luis Ramos hit-by-pitch getting runners to first and second. David Espinal would execute a perfect push bunt for a single and to load the bases with no outs. Connor Crayton had a great at-bat working a bases loaded walk that would bring in Rivera and bring the game within one run and keep the bases loaded. Now with one out in the inning, a wild pitch would score pinch-runner Andrew Massey and move runners up a base and tie the game at 10-10.
With Randy Good up to the plate and runners on second and third with only one out, Good would hit a pop fly in foul territory drawing the first basemen to make the catch while hitting the fence and allowing Ashton Gatica to tag up and score on the play giving the Swedes the 11-10 lead heading into the last half inning of the game. The bulldogs would rally for two singles, a sacrifice fly to tie the game, and a walk-off double down the line to secure the win and series.
The final game of the series would be another high scoring game this time the Swedes would keep the lead and win by the score of 14-7. The Swedes would score in every inning except three and rally for 16 hits as a team. Edwardo Vasquez would pick up the win and his first win as a Swede. Vasquez would last 3.1 innings on 7 hits, 5 runs (4 earned), 1 walk, and 1 strikeout. Willard Frizzell would be the only pitcher to come in relief and shut down the Bulldogs offense going 5.2 innings on 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 walks, and 3 strikeouts. Noel Perez (2), Luis Ramos (4), Connor Crayton (2), Randy Good (2), Payton Walk (2), Caleb Rodriguez (3) would all record multiple hits in the game. Joseph Rivera would lead the offense with 3 RBIs to contribute to offensive performance by the Swedes. It was an all around great performance for Bethany and they will look to continue that in the next conference matchup.
Up next…
The Bethany College Baseball team will be on the road to take on Tabor College for the second game of the mid-week conference matchup Tuesday, March 28th, at 2:00 pm cst.
