Kansas Wesleyan used a sixth-inning rally to secure a game two win and earn a split with the McPherson Bulldogs on Tuesday at Bill Burke Park. McPherson won the first game 9-7 and the Coyotes grabbed a 7-5 win in the second.
McPherson took a 1-0 lead in the second inning and scored four times in the third to take a 5-0 lead. The Bulldogs continued to pull away, taking an 8-0 lead in the fourth and carried the lead into the fifth before the Coyotes got things going.
Brooklyn Smith led off the fifth with a double and went to third on Morgan Rasmussen's fly out. Brooklyn Lange then singled to bring in a run. Elli Han singled and Kendell Wilcox hit a ground-rule double to bring in a run. Keira Hammen brought in a run with a hit to get the Coyotes within 8-3.
McPherson added a run in the sixth, but the Coyotes got two on Smith's 2-run homer.
The Coyotes tried to rally in the seventh as Han led off the inning with a double and Wilcox followed with a 2-run homer to get the Coyotes within two at 9-7. After a McPherson pitching change and two outs, Madison Geer and Cadence Mallet singled to put the tying runs aboard, but the Coyotes couldn't push a run across.
Han had three hits for the Coyotes while three others had two each. Bella Allen would suffer the loss for the Coyotes in the circle.
Wesleyan had to play from behind again in the second game as McPherson put a run on the board in the first inning.
The Coyotes tied it in the bottom half as Han singled and then scored on a wild pitch later in the inning.
KWU took advantage of a McPherson error to bring in three runs in the second. Mallett and Smith singled ahead of Addie Herrera reaching on an error that brought in two runs. Lange then hit a sacrifice fly to bring in a third run putting the Coyotes up 4-1.
McPherson got back into it, scoring a run in the third, and fourth innings, then scoring two in the fifth to take a 5-4 lead.
The score stayed there until the sixth. Smith led off the inning with a single and moved up on Herrera's sacrifice bunt. Lange then singled, and Han followed with a 2-run single to put the Coyotes up 6-5. Wilcox added a RBI double to extend the lead to 7-5.
Herrera was the starting pitcher, but came out in the sixth inning before re-entering in the seventh to get the save. She struck out 11 in the game. Alli Mickelsen got the win as the pitcher of record when the Coyotes took the lead.