GRAND PRAIRIE, TX: The 22nd ranked Texas Wesleyan University baseball team (35-15, 17-5 SAC) took an impressive 12-2 win in the opener of a three-game Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC) series with Southwestern Assemblies of God University (14-38, 4-18 SAC) on Senior Day at The Ballpark in Grand Prairie Sunday afternoon. As the Rams kept their SAC title hopes alive, they celebrated the outstanding contributions of nine seniors.
No. 17 University of Science & Arts (OK) currently tops the conference standings at 19-5 after sweeping a series with Southwestern Christian University this weekend. If the Rams can complete a sweep of SAGU they would hold the tiebreaker with USAO by virtue of a 2-1 head-to-head record. Ram fans will remember that the series with USAO ended with one swing of the bat and a mammoth walk-off home run from
Casey Moses.
Ryan Adam,
Zach Aitken,
Jonathan Bravo,
Jake Davis,
Matt Hexter,
Ricky Hull,
Erick Quesada,
Avery Sullivan, and
Dusteyn Suttle are all wrapping up their senior seasons. Eight of the nine saw action in Sunday's contest. The lone holdout was
Ricky Hull who will start one of the two games of a doubleheader at SAGU Monday afternoon.
Ryan Adam led off the bottom of the first with a double. Three batters later,
Alex Gudac ripped his 7th triple of the season, plating two runs and setting a new school record for triples in a season.
With one out in the second, Adam stepped up with runners at second and third. Gudac held sole possession of the single season mark for nearly a full inning as Adam lined a ball to the centerfield wall for his 7th triple of the season.
Blake Seaton followed with a sac fly, and the Rams led 5-0.
The Rams plated runs with a double from
Jake Davis and a wild pitch to lead 7-0 in the third. The offensive onslaught continued with three runs in the fifth and two more in the eighth.
Meanwhile the Lions managed single runs with a solo home run from Tallon Ralstin in the fourth and an RBI double from Brett Carroll in the eighth.
The Rams totaled 11 hits in the run-shortened victory. Adam made the most of his Senior Day, going 3-for-3 with a single, double, and triple with two RBI and a run scored. Gudac was 2-for-5.
Jake Davis knocked in three runs while going 1-for-2 at the plate. Quesada and Suttle also recorded Senior Day hits.
Seniors
Zach Aitken and
Avery Sullivan handled the pitching duties. Aitken improved to 8-3 on the season as he scattered seven hits across 5.2 innings allowing only one run and striking out five. Sullivan tossed the final 2.1 allowing a run on one hit while striking out two.
The Rams and Lions will complete their three-game series with a doubleheader in Waxahachie, TX on the SAGU campus on Tuesday. Game one is scheduled for a 2:00 pm start. If the Rams take both, they would move into a tie atop the SAC standings with USAO with whom they hold the head-to-head tie breaker.
Ramblings
- The single season triples record was held by Brandon Frazier (2006) and Brock Huggins (1996) at six. Adam and Gudac currently rank 8th in the NAIA with seven triples.
- As a team, the Rams have hit a school record 28 triples. Nine different Rams have at least one triple this season. Seven different players have hit multiple triples.
- The Rams lead the all-time series with SAGU 39-6. Texas Wesleyan is 43-27 all-time in SAC play.
