Kansas Wesleyan's baseball team proved once again it is not a one-trick pony.
Renowned for their ability to hit the ball as well or better than anyone in the NAIA, the 10th-ranked Coyotes also have a pitching staff that can hold its own.
Hamstrung by York starter Elvin Ramos most of the game, top-seeded KWU prevailed 5-1 in a first-round game of the Kansas Conference Championship on Wednesday night at Dean Evans Stadium thanks to the yeoman work of pitchers Wil Yamka and Riley Gwin. Yamka started and allowed one run on five hits through the first six innings, and Gwin pitched three shutout innings in relief.
KWU advances to the winners' bracket semifinals against McPherson at 7 p.m. Thursday at Evans Stadium. The fifth-seeded Bulldogs defeated No. 4 Friends 7-3 earlier in the day.
The Coyotes got seven hits in 7.1 innings against the lefthanded Ramos, but Yamka and Gwin - who are also lefthanders - were better. Yamka (7-2) struck out five and walked no one while Gwin struck out four and walked none for his fifth save.
"First off, hats off to Ramos and their team," KWU coach Bill Neale said. "He did a great job, mixed speeds, mixed location and all that stuff.
"Wil's kind of deceiving and tough to see at times. He was in his zone; he was aggressive in the (strike) zone and aggressive early (in the at-bat)."
KWU (44-6) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Carter Allen's home run over the right field fence.
The Coyotes added a second run in the fifth when Zac Goldenberg doubled. Pinch runner Lakin Franz advanced to third on a passed ball and scored when York's catcher threw the ball into left field trying to get Franz.
Allen, the KCAC Player of the Year, had three hits and Blake Dale two.
York, the tournament's eighth seed, scored its run in the sixth inning, but KWU answered with a run in the bottom half of the inning when Allen singled and advanced to second on a balk. A wild pitch moved him to third, and he scored on Fernando Ruvalcaba's ground out, making it 3-1.
The Coyotes scored twice in the eighth inning. Nico Olson walked with one out and advanced to second on Allen's infield single. Ruvalcaba scored Olson with a double into the gap in left-centerfield gap and Allen raced home on a passed ball.
"Allen's (home run) helped Wil relax a little bit because he had that lead, even though it was just one run," Neale said.
York's role in KWU's next two runs can't be understated.
"If you're the other team and that happens to you, that's so deflating," Neale said. "We did nothing to get a guy to third base and then Fernie barrels one up to the shortstop and we scored a run. That's almost more deflating than giving up a home run."
Neale said the tight game wasn't a surprise.