KWU Sports Information
Kansas Wesleyan's Bomb Squad wasn't fooling around on April Fools Day.
The Coyotes sent eight baseballs sailing over the outfield fence at Dean Evans Stadium – four in each game – and rolled to 12-3 and 8-3 Kansas Conference victories over Friends on Saturday afternoon.
The eight home runs give them 67 on the season and ranks them fifth in the NAIA, five behind No. 4 Cumberlands (Ky.). Southeastern (Fla.) leads with 92.
Jarrett Gable (SR/Colleyville, Texas) led the power surge with three long balls, two in the second game, while Haydn Brown (SR/Gardnerville, Nev.) belted two, one in each game. Zack Beatty (JR/Maple Park, Ill.), Kevin Esquilin-Cruz (SR/Trujilo Alto, Puerto Rico) and Kendall Foster (SR/Prosper, Texs) each had one.
"We're trying to drive the ball," said Gable, who leads the team with 13 homers. "We've got nine guys who can hit and when you have a lineup like that it relieves the pressure. I think everybody is almost trying to one up each other. I think we did that today, we kept one upping each other."
Beatty, Foster, Brown and Dustin Sipe (SR/Aztec, N.M.) have 10 homers apiece for the season.
"Our mindset is to take swings and drive the baseball," coach Bill Neale said. "We want to see elevated pitches and they did a good job with that today. In the past we've probably had three or four guys that hit most of our home runs and now we've got six, seven guys in the lineup that can do it and hit multiple home runs.
"We're about to have maybe five or six guys with double digit home runs. You can't just walk a guy to get to the next guy because the next guy is just as dangerous."
KWU's 20 runs Saturday made life easier on starting pitchers Nathan Righi (JR/Pekin, Ill.) and Tyler Triano (SR/Hollister, Calif.).
Righi (8-1) pitched the first five innings of the opener and Danny Ramirez (SO/Calexico, Calif.) finished it pitching four shutout innings for his first save. Triano worked the first five innings of the nightcap followed by Ritter Steinmann (SO/Oroville, Calif.) and Ryan Sandoval (SR/El Paso, Texas) with an inning apiece to close it.
The sweep increased the Coyotes' winning streak to seven. They're 26-9 overall, 14-4 in the conference, and are tied for second with Oklahoma Wesleyan two games behind McPherson which is 16-2.
"There's definitely a lot of good teams in the KCAC so one game really affects a lot," Gable said. "We've won the series but that one game still means a lot tomorrow.
"Our confidence is through the roof. We walked through the gate and we're going after somebody. I like that."
KWU and Friends conclude the three-game series with a single game starting at 1 p.m. Sunday at Evans Stadium.
KWU 12, FRIENDS 3
Friends scored twice in the top of the first but KWU quickly served notice it was going to be a long and difficult day for the Falcons by scoring seven in the bottom of the first.
Brown drove in the first two with a double and Beatty scored Brown and himself with a homer that made it 4-2. Gable followed with a solo homer and Diego Solis (SO/El Paso, Texas) and Will Dryburgh added run-scoring singles.
Brown hit a solo shot in the second inning for an 8-3 lead and KWU broke it open with four runs in the third on Esquilin-Cruz's solo homer, Sipe's two-run double and an RBI single by Beatty.
The Coyotes had 18 hits – Beatty, Esquilin-Cruz and Solis with three apiece and Dryburgh, Sipe, and Brown two each. Brown and Beatty each drove in three runs.
Righi allowed three runs (two earned) on two hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. Ramirez blanked the Falcons on four hits while walking one and striking out five.
"Righi was a bulldog," Neale said. "He probably didn't have his best location stuff but he's a competitive person so even when he doesn't have his best he's still going to give us a chance to win. You give this offense a chance to win and they'll be pretty good."
KWU 8, FRIENDS 3
The home run barrage resumed in the first inning when Brown and Gable each crushed two-run shots for a 4-0 lead. Foster added a solo shot and Gable drove in a run with a deep fly ball to left in the third that extended the lead to 6-1.
Friends got within 6-3 with two runs in the fourth but Gable's second two-run homer of the game in the sixth inning made it 8-3.
The Coyotes finished with eight hits, Gable and Beatty with two apiece. Gable drove in five runs and Brown two.
Triano (2-0) gave up three runs on three hits, struck out four and no walks. Steinmann pitched a perfect sixth inning and Sandoval allowed one hit in the seventh.
"Triano went out and did a good job and obviously our bullpen keeps stepping up," Neale said. "We struggled to start the year but Danny Ramirez coming in and shutting them down in the first game and then Ritter coming in and Sandy coming in just being them – it's almost clockwork with those guys."