Fort Worth-- The Texas Wesleyan baseball team (21-13, 8-5 SAC) used solid pitching and timely hitting to defeat Southwestern Christian University (16-15, 1-9) 8-3 on Friday afternoon at Sycamore Park.

TXWES struck first in the bottom half of the first inning on a double by Hayden Hutchins to give the Rams a 1-0 lead. Jhors Gomez hit a homerun in the second inning to tie the game at 1. Manny Luna reached first on an error, which scored JD Padgett to give the Rams a 2-1 lead.

In the third inning, Parker Henderson tied the game at 2 with a single up the middle to score Nick Smith for the Eagles. The Rams built a two run lead in the fifth inning after Joseph Barfield blasted a homerun to right center field and Marcos Sanchez singled up the middle to score Hayden Hutchins. Heading into the sixth inning the Rams held a 4-2 lead.

Marcos Sanchez singled to left field in the seventh inning to score Hayden Hutchins. Matt Espinosa smashed a single to score Aidan Kenny to make the score 6-2. Manny Luna continued the scoring streak with a double down the left field line to score Chaesten Chon. Joseph Barfield capped the inning off with a double down the line to score Manny Luna to make the score 8-2.

The Rams shutdown the Eagles in the top of the ninth inning to secure an 8-3 victory. Ian Landreneau secured his first win of the season after pitching 4.2 innings and only giving up three hits and one earned run. Garrett Bodine pitched two innings, striking out two batters and giving up one run. Stephen Roberts closed out the game with one inning of work and a strikeout in four batters faced.

Manny Luna went two for five at the plate and picked up one RBI. Joseph Barfield went two for five with two RBI's. Hayden Hutchins went two for three with one RBI and two walks. TXWES will face SCU on Saturday, April 2 at 1 and 3:30 p.m.