TOPEKA – Home games not at home continue to be a thing for Kansas Wesleyan baseball. Hopefully not for much longer.
With the finishing touches at a newly renovated Dean Evans Stadium still ongoing, the Coyotes headed to the Bettis Family Sports Complex to take on the Morningside Mustangs in a series opening doubleheader on Friday. The teams would split the doubleheader with Morningside winning the opener but the Coyotes rallied to take the nightcap 9-6.
Morningside took the opener 7-5. The Mustangs scored a run in the top of the first inning, but the Coyotes came back with two in the bottom of the frame off one swing of the bat by Trey Lopez (SR/Burlington, Wash.). Lopez crushed a ball out to center that also plated Tyler Latham (JR/Wichita Falls, Texas) who had been hit by a pitch earlier in the inning.
Dalton Bishop (JR/Colorado Springs, Colo.) led off the second with a double then scored on William Dryburgh (SO/St. Joseph, Mo.)'s single. Spencer Keane (JR/Palm Springs, Calif.) then drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Morningside got a run in the third and two more in the fourth and fifth innings to take a 6-4 lead.
Wesleyan got a run back in the sixth as Haydn Brown (SR/Gardnerville, Nev.) scored on a passed ball. Morningside got one insurance run in the seventh for the 7-5 win.
The Coyotes had three hits in the game, but Lopez drove in two runs for the Coyotes to lead the way. Oscar Sanchez (JR/Celina, Texas) took the loss for the Coyotes, allowing six runs, five earned on 10 hits with four strikeouts.
In the second game, the Coyotes avoided danger in the first getting Morningside to lead the bases loaded without a run scoring, but the Mustangs would take a 1-0 lead after the top of the second.
The Coyotes had a response, as Josh Sandoval (SR/Glendale, Ariz.) led off the inning with a walk and courtesy runner Austin Cross (JR/Montgomery, Texas) would score of Dalton Bishop's single and error to center. Another passed ball would allow Bishop to score.
Keane led off the third with a double and then scored on Brown's double to give the Coyotes a 3-1 lead.
Morningside plated four runs in the fourth to take a 5-3 lead but again the Coyotes had an answer.
Jakeub Scheid (FR/Bradenton, Fla.) and Sisipako Vehikite (JR/Santa Clara, Calif.) were both hit by a pitch to open the inning, and Tristan Devane (FR/Frostproof, Fla.) drove in the first run with a single, and a wild pitch allowed a second run to score for the Coyotes. Sandoval walked with the bases loaded to force in a run and Bishop added a sacrifice fly to push the Coyotes ahead 7-5.
Morningside got within a run in the top of the sixth, but the Coyotes bounced back again scoring twice in the bottom of the inning on Dryburgh's RBI double and another wild pitch by Morningside.
Branden Voytko (JR/El Paso, Texas) picked up the save in the pitching by committee game for the Coyotes, striking out two in the seventh. Trent Short (SR/Imperial, Mo.) ended up picking up the win as the pitcher of record when the Coyotes took the lead in the bottom of the fourth.
Eight different Coyotes had a hit each in the game.
The same two teams meet again on Saturday at the Bettis Complex to conclude the series.
--kuwcoyotes.com--