Tyler Favretto and Joe Finder hit home runs and drove in three apiece in leading Kansas Wesleyan to a 14-6 victory over York in the first game of a Kansas Conference doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Dean Evans Stadium.
York won the second game 4-2 but the Coyotes took two of three in the weekend series. KWU is now 14-4 in the conference and 19-10 overall; York is 11-14 and 8-9.
"They're a good team, they're much improved from previous years," coach Bill Neale said of York. "They've already taken two of three from Tabor and two of three from McPherson. It's disappointing, though, when you win the first two games of a series, and you lose the third. It's not really the way you want to end the series."
The Coyotes had 15 hits in the first game led by Favretto with three. Jacob Williamson, Garrett Garfield, Carter Allen, Blake Dale, Joe Finder and Eric Romero had two apiece.
Nathan Righi (4-1) started and surrendered six runs on nine hits along with three walks and four strikeouts in the first six innings. Riley Bradshaw got his first save by pitching three shutout innings and allowing three hits.
"Righi just kind of bulldogged for us today," Neale said. "Probably didn't have his best stuff but they're a good hitting team. He just battled through. Bradshaw did a good job throwing strikes, that was probably the best stuff I've seen him have all year. He was good."
York took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning before Favretto's home run cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the first.
KWU broke it open with six runs in the bottom of the second. Finder's two-run homer made it 3-2, Romero tripled home a run and scored on an error following Williamson's single for a 5-2 lead. Favretto's double scored Williamson that made it 6-2 and Favretto later raced home on another York error.
The Coyotes scored five in the third inning. Allen came home on Romero's ground ball, Williamson's double scored Blake Dale and Finder for a 10-2 advantage. Chase Aurand scored on Favretto's groundout and Garfield singled in Williamson making it 12-2.
York's got four runs back, three on Cameron Reeve's home run in the fourth inning. Finder's double scored Garfield in the sixth pushed the lead back to 13-6 and Favretto singled in Romero in the seventh for the final run.
York's Ian Heck went the distance in the nightcap allowing two runs on three hits with six strikeouts and no walks. Both KWU runs came on solo homers - Williamson in the third and Fernando Ruvalcaba in the seventh.
"He attacked us old school with fastballs," Neale said. "Nowadays everyone wants to throw sliders and breaking balls all the time. He came at us with fastballs 85, 87 (miles per hour) and he located his off-speed stuff when he needed to. He was in attack mode the entire time and we didn't make enough adjustments to hit him. "
Nathan Galusha (4-2) took the loss allowing three runs on four hits with four walks and four strikeouts in 2.1 innings. Ritter Steinmann pitched the final 4.2 innings and allowed one run on three hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
"Ritter came in and shut the door," Neale said. "He's throwing more innings this year than he has in the past. He hit 90 (miles per hour) in the last inning so his stuff was good all the way through. He kept us in there and gave us a chance to come back and win the baseball game."