CANTON — The Statesmen baseball team split its final doubleheader of the season in Canton, Missouri against conference opponent Culver-Stockton on Saturday.
William Penn (23-22, 12-12) could only muster two runs in its first game of the day to fall 6-2 before an offense explosion led the navy and gold to a 19-7 victory in game two.
C-SC 6 – WPU 2
Thee Wildcats (17-31, 13-11) struck first with a run in the bottom of the first inning. It was able to hold off the Statesmen offense as it extended the lead to 6-0 by the end of the fourth.
After a scoreless fifth inning, William Penn finally got on the board when Keoni Young (Sr., Las Vegas, Nev., Exercise Science) hit a two-RBI single that scored Logan Bialek (Jr., South Elgin, Ill., Exercise Science) and McGwire Jephson (Jr., Rigby, Idaho, Business Management).
Neither team could score in the seventh inning as the Wildcats held on for the win.
Jephson went 2-for-2 from the plate with a walk. Young had two RBIs, while Jephson and Bialek each had a run.
Connor Gaddis (Fr., Kansas City, Mo., Exercise Science) closed out the game on the mound for William Penn where he only gave up one hit and no runs in the final two innings.
WPU 19 – C-SC 7
The Statesmen closed the season on a high note with an offense onslaught in the nightcap.
Bialek earned the first run of the contest when Sawyer Hardman (Jr., American Fork, Utah, Kinesiology) earned the walk, forcing in the run.
C-SC responded with a run of its own in the bottom half of the frame to tie the game at 1-1.
Jephson started the scoring in a five-run second frame when he hit a two-RBI double to center field that sent Andres Pineda (Sr., Cartagena, Colombia, Business Management) and Jagger Mitchell (Sr., Rock Springs, Wyo., Business Management) home. After a couple more runs for his team, Shane Mailloux (So., Santee, Calif., Business Management) finished the half-inning’s scoring with an RBI-single as Abraham Arroyo (Grad., Camuy, P.R., Master’s of Sports Management) ran in for the score.
After the Wildcats scored two more in the bottom half of the inning, the lead was cut to 6-3.
The next three innings saw no runs, until the Statesmen put across 11 in the sixth, highlighted by Arroyo hitting a two-run homer over the left-field fence to score Aiden North (Jr., Oskaloosa, Iowa, Industrial Technology) and himself.
William Penn kept the scoring going in the top of the seventh inning when Albert Jaquez (Jr., Gurnee, Ill., Kinesiology) made it home on a wild pitch. The last run for the Statesmen was scored by Leland Riley II (Sr., Victorville, Calif., Kinesiology) on an RBI single by Bialek.
Culver-Stockton put four more runs on the board before William Penn shut down the Wildcats’ offense for the win.
Arroyo went 3-for-4 from the plate, while Jephson went 3-for-5. Jephson, Arroyo, and Bialek each earned four runs while Mitchell and Pineda each had two. Perez and Pineda had two hits in the win. Jephson and Hardman had four RBIs, while Arroyo had three, and Mailloux had two. North and Young each drew a pair of walks in the win.
