SENECA, Mo. - FINALLY the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes got to play their first round game against the Friends University Falcons in the KCAC Baseball Tournament. After two days of postponements and site changes the teams finally got the change to play and the Coyotes came away with a 7-3 win at Seneca High School on Thursday.
The win moves the Coyotes forward in the KCAC bracket to face McPherson on Friday at 12:15 p.m., at Joe Becker Stadium in Joplin. McPherson upset No. 3 seed Ottawa in the first round on Thursday.
The Coyotes struck first in the second inning. Carter Allen led off the inning with a walk and after Joe Finder was hit by a pitch and Blake Dale advanced the runners with a sacrifice, Coulson Riggs walked to load the bases. Eric Romero brought in the run on a fielder's choice to put KWU up 1-0.
It was 1-0 until the fifth when the Coyotes scored three more runs all on one swing. Jacob Williamson and Tyler Favretto started off the inning with hits and two batters later Fernando Ruvalcaba crushed a 3-run homerun to put the Coyotes up 4-0.
Friends made things interesting with three runs in the sixth, but the Coyotes would add three more in the bottom of the inning. Williamson tripled and Favretto was intentionally walked setting the scene for Garrett Garfield to crush a 3-run homer to put the Coyotes up 7-3.
Friends left the bases loaded in the seventh, but did not threaten in the eighth or ninth.
Williamson and Favretto had three hits each to lead the Coyotes. Garfield and Ruvalcaba drove in three each. Brett Maddock got the win for the Coyotes going five and a third innings allowing three runs on six hits. Ritter Steinmann went the rest of the way for the save, scattering three hits and striking out six.