Park University's baseball program had an extremely volatile series with No. 13 MidAmerica Nazarene University, on Friday, Saturday, and even extending game four into Tuesday. The Pioneers lost game one, but came back for the next three wins in the series, 3-1.
A 9-0 start to the season is the best Park has seen since the 2009 season when Park began the year 12-0 and went on to 34-12.
This opened up Heart of America Athletic Conference play for both teams and now the Pirates stand at 9-3 and 1-3 in the Heart, while MidAmerica Nazarene is 10-7 to begin 2024 and 3-1 in conference play.
GAME 1 | W, 8-7 | Box Score
Park had their work cut out for them against MidAmerica Nazarene's ace on the mound Zach Trevino, who is the all-time wins leader at MidAmerica and in his start on Friday went over 246 career strikeouts to become the Pioneers' all-time leader in that category as well.
The Pirates were unphased and capitalized on a bit of rust from Trevino. Two runs came across to score in the first inning. First by a sacrifice fly from
Victor Sanchez-Ramos and then a rare balk to score
Corey Bradford from third-base.
Park had to work around two errors in the field in the second inning and
Guillermo Gelpi pitched tough to the Pioneers without giving up a hit and preserved the lead as only one run came in to score after a steal that spurred on a play at the plate with a throw coming back from second base, but was dropped on the tag.
Park benefited from another error in the field by the Pioneers, but also had two hits to help bring in two runs. One of those hits was a single from
Billy Rivera to give Park a 4-1 lead.
Gilberto Torres and Sanchez had back-to-back hits, including a double by Sanchez, to set up
Edward Gonzalez' two-RBI single for a 6-1 lead.
Gelpi would last 5.2 innings pitched with only three hits and three walks allowed on five strikeouts.
Five runs between the last two innings from the Pioneers tied the game at 7-7, but the Pirates were able to push one final run across in the seventh off of two beautifully executed singles by Gonzalez and
Dalton Short, which led to the walk-off swing by
Yadiel Santana for the game one win, 8-7.
Four Pirates had multi-hit games, including three Pirates with three hits in Rivera, Torres, and Gonzalez.
GAME 2 | L, 3-15 | Box Score
Game two was another great start by Park who responded after a one-run second inning with a two-run inning of their own for the lead. Gonzalez continued to see the ball well and he tripled for the Pirates' first run.
Daniel Maldonado lifted a sacrifice fly to give the go-ahead run to Park.
Bryan Aguirre held the Pioneers down through four innings with only two runs allowed. A solo shot by the Pioneers tied it at 2-2 in the top of the third, but the Pirates were ready to counter with an RBI single up the middle by Sanchez to regain the one-run lead.
MidAmerica already had two home runs in the game, but added two more in the top of the fifth. First came a solo shot by Brycen Sherwood for the tie, his second of the game, and then a three-run home run put them up three, 6-3. Six runs would score in the top of the fifth for the Pioneers on six hits for the 8-3 lead.
The offense for Park was silenced the rest of the way and the Pioneers continued to tack on insurance runs for the 15-3 win.
Park's two through six spots in the lineup accounted for eight of the team's nine hits. This time,
Zayne Morrow and Gonzalez were the only Pirates two grab two hits.
GAME 3 | L, 0-24 | Box Score
Game three began with
Adam Stilts tossing a scoreless top of the first, but then the Pioneers were able to turn a key double play in the next half inning to erase a lead-off base-hit by
Alex Rodriguez.
The top of the second would start off with a solo home run by the Pioneers pitcher, Noah Castillo who also is the MidAmerica Nazarene clean-up hitter. Things would get blown way out of proportion in the inning as 17 runs would score on 15 hits and one error. To put it in perspective, Castillo, who led off the inning, had three at-bats and his third at-bat was a grand slam. In all, two grand slams were hit in the inning.
Stilts would get his first loss of the year with eight earned runs scoring on eight hits. Five Pirate pitchers would come in to fill the remaining gaps in the game after Stilts, including
Michael Hoffman,
Dane Blankenship,
Yariel Colon,
Brady Strickert, and
Sebastian Del Olmo.
Park would only have three hits in the game, as the Pioneers shutout Park, 24-0.
GAME 4 | L, 12-15 | Box Score
The series would be decided in game four with a consistent drip of offense by each side. Two runs came in for the Pioneers in the first inning. The Pirates took advantage of a wild pitch to score a run in the bottom of the first, followed by a throwing error to tie the game at 2-2. Morrow then put Park on top with an RBI single through the right side of the infield, 3-2.
Another two runs came in for the Pioneers on three hits, including two doubles, which was matched perfectly by Park in the bottom of the second to regain the one-run lead, 5-4. Santana began the inning with a double and after a pitching change, two walks loaded the bases. Good situational hitting by
Ricardo Hernandez with a sacrifice fly and a simple ground out by Torres scored Rodriguez from third base.
Raul Garcia stood his ground after giving up a one-out double in the third inning and put up a crucial zero on the scoreboard. He would pitch 4.2 innings and strikeout five batters.
Park got a four-run lead after a three-run third inning on two hits, two walks, and a hit by pitch. Santana and Hernandez each singled to give Park its runs, one RBI for Santana and two RBI's for Hernandez.
A six-run top of the fifth inning flipped the lead back to MidAmerica, the fourth lead change of the game. The Pioneers got back on top with five hits for the 10-8 lead.
Alex Lozada did his job to close out the half inning and struck out Sherwood to end the inning.
Two more home runs came in the top of the sixth and the game looked all but out of reach at 12-8. The bottom of the sixth started the turnaround with a double by Marrow and a Santana single to pick up two runs.
Bryce Perdieu relieved Lozada and put up a scoreless inning assisted by an inning ending double play turned by Gonzalez and Rivera to Marrow. As fate would have it a lead-off double by Rivera got Park in business. Another RBI single by Hernandez put Park within one run. Bradford moved up 90 feet to second base and then another quality at-bat by Torres moved Bradford to third with a ground out to the right side of the infield. Another groundout by Sanchez was enough to push the tying run across. Morrow had his second consecutive double, this time with two outs. Park was unable to get Morrow in to score and a strikeout ended the bottom of the seventh, 12-12.
Due to darkness, the game was suspended before the top of the eighth, so both teams packed up and they would return to Comfort Field on Tuesday. When the game resumed, the Pioneers would face Perdieu and they jetted ahead 15-12. Park was unable to score in the bottom of the eighth despite the two-out single by Rodriguez.
Park had a hard-fought series and it will be no different against Baker University, as Park hosts the Wildcats for another four games, beginning on Saturday, March 9 at noon.
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Photos by Mike Myer:
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