All the Kansas Wesleyan Baseball team needed on Saturday was a split with the Friends Falcons to win the series. That's what the Coyotes got. KWU won Saturday's opener 6-3 to take the series, and Friends would win the nightcap 8-4 at Dean Evans Stadium.
The Coyotes opened the doubleheader with a 6-3 win.
Friends took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but the Coyotes answered right back in the bottom of the inning. Josh Sandoval (SR/Glendale, Ariz.) reached on an error, which allowed Haydn Brown (SR/Gardnerville, Nev.) to score and even the game.
The Coyotes got out of danger in the second as Kaden Sitzman (SR/McCook, Neb.) got Friends' Pablo Oden to ground into an inning-ending double play after the Falcons got two runners aboard.
Sitzman came up big again for the Coyotes in the third picking off RJ Lara at second base to end the inning.
The defense play of the game for the Coyotes came in the fourth inning. Friends had two runners on with two outs when Wes Kuzminsky singled to center. KWU center fielder Spencer Keane (JR/Palm Springs, Calif.) came up firing and launched a throw to the plate and got Jordan Burnett out by three steps trying to score from second.
Trey Lopez (SR/Burlington, Wash.) homered to lead off the fourth giving the Coyotes the lead and Sandoval followed with a triple and then scored on Dalton Whitaker (SR/Edmond, Okla.)'s sacrifice fly.
Friends got a run back in the sixth, but the Coyotes were able to avoid further damage, getting the Falcons to lead the bases loaded.
Lopez homered for a second time in as many at bats in the sixth for the Coyotes.
The Falcons got a run back in the seventh, but in the eighth, the Coyotes added two more as Lopez doubled then scored on Sandoval's 2-run homer to right.
Lopez had three hits, while Sandoval and Whitaker each had two for the Coyotes. Sitzman got the win, going 6-and-2/3 innings allowing three runs, two earned, on eight hits with six strikeouts. Branden Voytko (JR/El Paso, Texas) picked up his third save on the season, pitching the ninth.
In the second game, the Coyotes took an early lead as Austin Cross (JR/Montgomery, Texas) led off the first with a double then scored on a wild pitch. Friends would tie things up in the second with a double by Tyler Veltman.
Dalton Bishop (JR/Colorado Springs, Colo.) walked in the KWU second, then scored on Tristan Devane (FR/Frostproof, Fla.)'s homer that gave the lead back to the Coyotes.
Friends would score twice in the second and twice again in the fourth to take the lead and took controil with a 3-run fifth inning.
Wesleyan tried to rally as Cross led off the fifth with a double then scored on Brown's double to get within four. The Coyotes tried for a 2-out rally in the seventh, getting the game-tying run into the on-deck circle, but could not capitalize.
Tyler Triano (SO/Hollister, Calif.) suffered the loss on the hill for the Coyotes allowing five runs on eight hits in four innings. Cross and Brown each had two hits for the Coyotes.
Wesleyan returns to action on Tuesday, hosting York in a single nine at 3 p.m. at Dean Evans Stadium.
--kwucoyotes.com--