Park University's baseball program had a key series win on Sunday and Monday at Comfort Field against Baker University, defeating the Wildcats 3-1.

A big congratulations to Bryce Perdieu who tied Park's All-Time Career Saves record on Sunday with his seventh save of his five-year Park career.

Park lost the first game of the series, but they immediately broke the four-game losing streak and are now on a three-game winning streak, as they pull up to 12-5 on the year and 4-4 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference. Baker was on a conference hot streak of their own before coming to Parkville and are now 5-3 in the Heart and 7-15 overall on the season.

GAME 1 | L, 1-11 | Box Score

Baker held down the Pirate hitters in game one with only four hits in the game for Park. Baker's starter Caden Pogue went a complete game with nine strikeouts.

Ricardo Hernandez was the only Pirate to break through Park with a solo home run to left field in the bottom of the fourth, but at this point Baker had already scored all their runs.
Guillermo Gelpi would only last 2.1 innings on the mound, as Baker had a big six run inning in the top of the third on five hits to lead 7-0. Mason Sipes, Brady Strickert, Dash Goldston, Sebastian Del Olmo, Jesse Scholtz, and Dane Blankenship would all make appearances on the mound to put the game to rest, 11-1. Olmo, Scholtz, and Blankenship had the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th innings and they pitched scoreless innings.

GAME 2 | W, 14-8 | Box Score

Raul Garcia started game two on the mound for the Pirates and after working through three early runs between the first and second innings, he came back with three more scoreless innings with four strike outs to earn his third win of the season.

The offense came out in a big way with an eight-run second inning and a five-run third. Four runs came across, including an RBI single from Corey Bradford, in the second inning, but with one out, Victor Sanchez-Ramos did the rest with a grand slam for the innings' next four runs. Sanchez would be the catalyst for the Pirates with six RBI's in the game.

Park's third inning, like the second inning, also had four hits to bring around another five runs, which included RBI singles from Alex Rodriguez, Gilberto Torres, and Daniel Maldonado.

Baker got five runs back in the top of the sixth, but Park's offense did the heavily lifting earlier for a 14-8 win.

GAME 3 | W, 7-4 | Box Score

The runs didn't come until late in game three, as Adam Stilts went five strong innings to put his team in a position to win. Both teams pitching had to work around errors in the field as four errors got to Park and three were on the Wildcats.

Baker was able to score the opening run in the top of the fourth, which was immediately answered by a sacrifice fly by Yadiel Santana and an RBI single by Rodriguez to right field.
Three runs were scored by the Wildcats in the top of the fifth, but in the next half inning Park benefited from an error to help get Hernandez in to score off of a ground out off of Sanchez' bat to tie the game.


In the bottom of the sixth though, a triple by Maldonado jumpstarted the inning. Rodriguez gave his team the lead on a sacrifice fly, but another triple by Billy Rivera with one out and a two-RBI double by Sanchez boosted the Pirates to a 7-4 lead.

In the top of the seventh, it was a clean inning for Perdieu, who tied the career saves record at Park after getting a flyout to centerfield and two strikeouts to end the game.

GAME 4 | W, 12-5 | Box Score

The Wildcats and Park both exchanged three-run first innings. Zayne Morrow would tie the game on a two-RBI triple in the first inning with two outs. A double by Rivera would give Park the go-ahead run in the bottom of the second.

A run in each of the third and fourth innings would end the day for Bryan Aguirre and Alex Lozada ran into a little trouble in the fourth to allow Baker to take the lead, 5-4. Baker elected to keep their starter in for a key moment in the fifth inning and again Morrow came through with an opposite field double to give Park a 6-5 lead. Four more runs would score on a bases loaded walk and two out knocks from Rodriguez and Rivera.

Park tacked on two more runs for a 12-5 lead in the sixth to give Lozada the win and Park the series victory.

The Pirates are at Benedictine College on Saturday in their next conference games starting at noon in Atchison, Kan. WATCH