Park University's baseball program traveled to Oskaloosa, Iowa on Friday and Saturday, March 14-15 to face William Penn University. Park came away with a pair of wins on Saturday, but the Statesmen pulled a reversal on Saturday for the split.

The Pirates move to 11-8 on the season with a 7-5 Heart of America Athletic Conference record, while William Penn moves to .500 on the year at 10-10 and 3-5 in the Heart.

Yadiel Santana was a big part of the series and earned a Heart Player of the Week award between the Mount Mercy and William Penn series. Against William Penn he was eight-of-12 at the plate with six RBI's with a home run and triple. Park now has four Heart Player of the Week awards from four different student-athletes in 2025.

W, 7-6 | Box Score
The Pirates would strike first in the second inning of game one with a run in each inning from the second to fifth for a 4-0 lead.

Zayne Morrow started the scoring with a solo home run in the second innings, and then he came back around in the third inning with an RBI single.

Raul Garcia was on the mound for Park and went 5 innings with four strikeouts. He went the first four innings without allowing a run.

Santana got his solo home run in the fourth and Evan Johnson drove in Morrow on an RBI single in the fifth.

The Statesmen got a couple unearned runs in the fifth to make it 4-2 and then a two-run home run tied it up in the bottom of the sixth, 4-4.

Tom Hillgartner worked a walk with the bases loaded to give Park the go ahead run, while Santana added some insurance with a two-RBI single, his third RBI of the game.

James Hayes would close out game one for the save, but not before the Statesmen put up another two runs, as Park went on to win 7-6.       
          
W, 21-6 | Box Score
Jake Beckman took the mound for game two and shutout the Statesmen through the first four innings, like Garcia. He would go five strong innings with nine strikeouts on only two runs allowed.
Jake Lufft brought in the first run of the game in the first inning on a sacrifice fly, scoring Alex Rodriguez. The senior has already earned the school record in career at-bats this year, but after the William Penn series is also Park's new record holder in career runs with 161.

The game would get blown open in the third inning with 11 runs coming across for a 12-0 Park lead. There would be seven hits in the inning by the Pirates, including a two-RBI triple by Santana and a two-RBI double by Ricardo Hernandez.

Park would score a run in the fourth, but another wave of eight runs would rush in during the fifth for a 21-0 lead. The fifth inning would start with a solo home run by Gilberto Torres and then finish with a three-run home run by Billy Rivera, and six more hits would come in between.

The combination of Logan Wood and John Brady would finish the game for a 21-6 win in game two.

L, 3-6 | Box Score
While the Pirates went ahead 1-0 in the first inning off of an RBI single by Lufft, the game would remain 1-0 through four innings.

Bryan Aguirre threw four shutout innings to begin the game and Park went up 3-0 after RBI singles by Santana and Rivera.

The Statesmen only had two hits off of Aguirre through the first four innings, but William Penn took the lead in the fifth off of five hits and four runs, including a three-run home run.

Sebastian Del Olmo got out of the fifth for Aguirre with the last out, but then Park remained scoreless in the remaining innings offensively. Meanwhile, three consecutive, two-out hits added another two runs on the board for the Statesmen, as they won game three 6-3.

L, 5-16 | Box Score
William Penn remained on the offensive in game four, and between the last inning of game three and game four, the Statesmen scored in seven innings in a row.

Lufft would only last 2.2 innings on the mound, allowing seven hits and seven runs with only three earned runs to his credit.

Through the first two innings, Park was down 2-0, but RBI's from Rivera, Torres, and Hernandez helped Park gain a 3-2 lead in the top of the third. The bottom of the third though was a five-run swing for the Statesmen on five hits and two errors in the field by the Pirates and they regained the lead, 7-3.

Another six runs in the fourth inning, and three more runs in the fifth and sixth put the game out of reach, despite two Park runs scored in the bottom of the fifth. With that, William Penn and Park split after a 16-5 game four.

Park would have six errors in the game with nine unearned runs coming across to score for William Penn.

The Pirates will match up with Benedictine College on Friday and Saturday, March 21-22 at Comfort Field in the next bout of Heart action. WATCH