Kansas Wesleyan Baseball claimed its third straight KCAC Championship on Saturday, but the Coyotes will have to share. KWU swept the Avila Eagles in the regular season finale at Dean Evans Stadium to share the KCAC Regular Season Championship with Oklahoma Wesleyan.
It's the third straight championship for the Coyotes, a program first, and the Coyotes picked up their 30th KCAC win, marking the first time in school history the team has won 30 KCAC games in back-to-back seasons.
The Coyotes will be the No. 2 seed in the KCAC Tournament after conference tiebreak procedures were applied. Oklahoma Wesleyan took two of three games from Ottawa in Bartlesville, the last game completed in a downpour with the Eagles winning 18-16, after a nearly four-hour long weather delay in the seventh inning.
In Saturday's opener, Avila took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second on a laser shot homer by Jack Virden over the wall in right field.
Wesleyan drew even in the bottom of the third. Eric Romero led off the inning with a single to third and went to second on a wild pitch. Jacob Williamson followed with a double that skipped over third base into the corner for a double to bring in the first run. Tyler Favretto moved the runner with a ground out and Garrett Garfield tied the game with a sacrifice fly.
Avila took the lead in the fourth and held advantage until the bottom of the fifth. After a walk to Favretto, Garfield reached on an error. Two batters later Carter Allen launched a ball out to left for a 3-run homer to put the Coyotes up 5-3.
The Coyotes added another in the sixth when Blake Dale was hit by a pitch and then scored on Williamson's single to left.
The Eagles got a run in the eighth, but the Coyotes had an answer. Coulson Riggs singled and two batters later, Williamson launched a ball out to left center to make it 8-4.
Ritter Steinmann closed the door in the ninth, striking out the side for the save, his seventh of the season after entering the game in the top of the eighth.
Williamson had three of KWU's eight hits in the game and drove in four runs. Nathan Righi got the win to improve to 7-2 on the season allowing three runs on six hits with six strikeouts.
The Coyotes got an incredible pitching performance by Shaw Lee in the series finale.
Lee took a no hitter into the seventh inning before Avila's Zach Dillman pushed one through the left side to end the no-hit bid.
Williamson continued to swing a hot bat, breaking the scoreless tie with a homer to lead off the bottom of the third inning.
The Coyotes added two more in the fourth. Joe Finder led off with a double and then scored on a hit by Riggs. After a wild pitch, Romero singled home Riggs to make it 3-0.
Wesleyan added one more run in the sixth as Finder was hit by a pitch to start the inning and later in the inning pinch runner Alex Garcia scored on a wild pitch.
The seventh inning hit was only the second base runner that Avila had in the entire game, the only other a leadoff walk to start the game.
Favretto and Riggs had two hits each for the Coyotes.
Lee improved to 5-0 with the 1-hit win, striking out six and walking one.