Kansas Wesleyan coach Bill Neale was ready to move on to the next game moments after the Coyotes' loss to McPherson Thursday night in the winners' bracket semifinal of the Kansas Conference Baseball Tournament at Dean Evans Stadium.
The fifth-seeded Bulldogs scored all their runs in the first five innings en route to an 11-5 victory. The loss drops top-seeded KWU into the consolation bracket and an elimination game against fourth-seeded Friends at noon Friday. Friends lost to McPherson 7-3 on Wednesday and eliminated York 8-3 Thursday.
"It's one of those games that football coaches say they'll take the film and burn it or they throw it away or bury it or something," Neale said. "That's what we'll do with this, with this boxscore, whatever and just move on to the next game."
It was the type of game the 10th-ranked Coyotes have rarely encountered this season. They surrendered 14 hits, committed four errors, and stranded 14 baserunners.
"We had like three or four double plays, we left a million runners on base; we weren't sharp on the mound, we weren't sharp defensively - just one of those nights," Neale said.
KWU, the visiting team on the scoreboard, took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning when Niko Olson, Carter Allen and Fernando Ruvalcaba led off the game with singles - Ruvalcaba's hit scoring Olson.
After McPherson scored four in the bottom of the first and one in the third, the Coyotes made 5-3 with two runs in the fourth when Garrett Garfield was hit by a pitch and scored on Zac Goldenberg's two-run homer.
The Bulldogs scored three in the bottom of the third and led 8-3. KWU got within 8-5 in the fifth when Blake Dale led off with a solo homer. Two outs later, Goldenberg doubled and scored on Tyler Nordyke's single.
McPherson, though, scored three in the bottom of the fifth for the game's final runs.
KWU had 13 hits, Olson with three and Allen, Ruvalcaba and Goldenberg two each. Starting pitcher Shaw Lee (8-2) worked the first three innings and took the loss. Connor Rhorer, Aidan Henderson and Isaac Hawthrone also pitched.
"We just talked about how we haven't been sharp in the last few weeks," Neale said of his postgame message. "As much as we've won, I think we've done so more by talent than anything. I think we need to play the game of baseball a little bit better and it's in all phases.