FORT WORTH, Texas – The 17th ranked Texas Wesleyan University baseball team (12-6) split a double header with Blue Mountain College (Miss.) (6-9) at Sycamore Park on Friday. The Rams overwhelmed the Toppers in game one 15-3 before game two slipped away late, 7-5.
In game one, the Rams filled up the box score with double digits in the runs, hits, and strikeouts columns. The team combined for 15 runs on 16 hits, while the pitching staff sat down 10.
The Rams picked up an early 1-0 lead in the first inning.
Kaden Brown led off the inning with a first-pitch single up the middle in the lead-off positon.
Marcos Sanchez plated the run on a bloop single into right field.
TXWES struck again in the third with a huge inning.
Michael Higgins made the BMC starter Easton Williams pay for a pair of walks with a 3-run blast over the left field wall to start the rally. That pushed the lead to 4-1.
Caleb Harmond extended the inning with a RBI liner into center that chased Williams out of the game.
Trey Smith and
Dominick Padilla followed the trend, each hitting RBI base hits through the right side of the infield to keep the rally going. Another run scored on a Topper error to cap a seven run inning and grabbing an 8-0 advantage.
Higgins did it again in the fourth, this time it was a no-doubter solo shot well beyond the center-field wall. The extra run made it a 9-0 Ram lead.
The runs kept pouring in for the home team, adding six more runs before all was said and done. Two came off the bat of
Tanner Amaral, another pair from Sanchez.
Jesse Ramirez (3-0) executed an efficient outing to secure the win. The senior tossed four scoreless frames, scattered five hits and struck out a handful.
Higgins went 3 for 5 with four RBI and two homers. Sanchez went 3 for 4 with three RBI.
In game two, the lead changed hands four times before the dust settled. It was a nail-biter from start to finish, and the Rams got off on the good foot with a three-run first. Sanchez knocked in the first run on a double to left-center. Not to be outdone, Harmond smacked one in the gap to left-center for a head-first diving RBI triple. The other run of the inning was scored on a Topper balk that caused an uproar in the visiting camp.
The Toppers took a run in the second on a Matt Crowder RBI double, and Blue Mountain followed that up with a two-run shot in the third, courtesy of Will Brooks. That tied the game 3-3.
Blue Mountain College broke the tie at 4-3 in the fifth largely due to a throwing error that gave the Toppers favorable conditions to produce an unearned run.
TXWES found two runs in the sixth to recapture a 5-4 edge. The Toppers had a costly miscue that set up part two of another Harmond RBI triple that tied the game.
Trey Smith got Harmond home in the next at bat on a shallow sacrifice fly to left field to gain the lead.
In the seventh, the Toppers found pay dirt after a walk and a bloop single, followed by a throwing error allowed the tying and go-ahead runs to score. BMC got one more run to cross to make it 7-5 and then held off the Rams to secure the win.
The two teams will meet tomorrow, Feb. 22 to decide the series winner. The single, nine-inning game is set for a 1 p.m. first pitch.
