William Jewell College used a six-run seventh inning, then held off a ninth-inning Wayne State rally, as the Cardinals beat the Wildcats 7-4 Tuesday in non-conference college baseball action at the Pete Chapman Baseball Complex in Wayne.
Wayne State’s Taner Ledezma and William Jewell’s Wyatt Schulz engaged in a pitchers’ duel early on, assisted by some stellar defense plays by both teams.
Wayne State broke the scoreless tie in the fourth when Kyle Thompson was hit by a pitch and later scored on a Bryce Bisenius RBI single to right field, giving the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.
The game stayed 1-0 until the seventh when William Jewell took advantage of a Wildcat throwing error with two outs, leading to five hits and one more Wildcat error. The Cardinals turned that deficit into a 6-1 advantage after seven, then added another run in the ninth to take a 7-1 lead.
The Wildcats used a two-out rally of their own in the bottom of the ninth to make things interesting.
With two outs and no runners on base, pinch-hitter Peyton Barnes blasted a solo homer to left field to make the score 7-2. Chris May, Tandon Dorn and Tanner Simons each followed with singles as May scored on Simons’ hit to cut the lead to 7-3. A Cody Jenkins single through the left side brought home Dorn to trim the Cardinal lead to 7-4.
William Jewell reliever Thomas Hennelly, the third pitcher of the inning and the seventh of the game for the Cardinals, was able to stop the rally, getting pinch hitter Rob Ramsey to strike out swinging on a 3-2 pitch to end the game.
Wayne State outhit the Cardinals 10-9. May led the Wildcats at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a run scored. Barnes had a solo homer while Dorn, Simons, Jenkins, Thompson, Bisenius and Cody Castro each singled.
Starter Taner Ledezma (1-2) suffered the hard-luck pitching loss for the Wildcats. He worked seven innings and allowed eight hits and six runs (all unearned) with six strikeouts and no walks. Kyle Kenneback worked a perfect inning of relief in the eighth while Spencer Johnson gave up one run on one hit working the ninth inning.
Wayne State (7-13) returns to Northern Sun Conference play this weekend traveling to Bismarck, N.D. for a four-game series at the University of Mary Saturday and Sunday.
