Kansas Wesleyan Baseball continues to hit its early season stride as the Coyotes swept a doubleheader from the Doane University Tigers on Saturday at Dean Evans Stadium.
It was the season opener for Doane, who is receiving votes in the NAIA Preseason Poll after winning the Great Plains Athletic Conference last season, and made an appearance in the NAIA Opening Round.
Meanwhile the Coyotes kept the line moving, winning their sixth-straight contest improving to 6-4 on the season.
After Doane took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, it was all Coyotes, doing their damage in the third and fourth innings of Saturday’s opener.
In the third, Diego Fisher (SR/Hollister, Calif.) led off the inning with a single, and Kendall Foster (SR/Prosper, Texs) walked. Up stepped Dustin Sipe (SR/Aztec, N.M.), hitting a ball out to center field that cleared the tall tree behind the fence to put the Coyotes up 3-0.
In the fourth, the Coyotes added four more runs. Zack Beatty (JR/Maple Park, Ill.) led things off with a walk, followed by a bunt single by Diego Solis (SO/El Paso, Texas). Jarrett Gable (SR/Colleyville, Texas) singled to load the bases, and Fisher drove in a run with a single, and a second run scored on an error on the play.
William Dryburgh (SR/St. Joseph, Mo.) drove in a run with a groundout and Foster capped the scoring for the Coyotes with a single to right that scored Fisher.
Doane got single runs in the seventh on a sacrifice fly and in the ninth on a homer, but it wasn’t enough as the Coyotes picked up the win.
Foster and Fisher had two hits each to lead the Coyotes. Nathan Righi (JR/Pekin, Ill.) got the win on the hill for the Coyotes, going six innings, allowing a run on four hits with six strikeouts. Spencer Foley (SR/Lancaster, Calif.) pitched two innings allowing a hit and striking out two, and Ritter Steinmann (SO/Oroville, Calif.) closed it out with an inning of work.
In the nightcap, the Coyotes jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the second, as Gable hit a 3-run homer in the inning, and Foster had a RBI single to left center and Sipe followed with a 2-run double.
The Coyotes scored three more in the fourth taking a 9-0 lead. Gable led off with a double, then scored on Zach Olson (JR/Red Deer, Alberta)’s single. Beatty brought home a run with a sacrifice and a wild pitch allowed Dryburgh to score all the way from second base.
Doane scored seven times in the top of the fifth, but the Coyotes would respond with a run in the bottom of the frame on Dryburgh’s single that scored pinch runner Coulson Riggs (FR/Piedmont, Okla.), and capped it off with four runs in the sixth.
The sixth was a 2-out rally for the Coyotes. Solis started it off with a single, followed by a walk to pinch hitter Cruz Oxford (FR/Peoria, Ariz.). Gable doubled bringing in the first run, and Fisher stepped up and crushed a ball out to right for a 3-run homer putting the Coyotes up 14-7.
Dryburgh and Gable had three hits each in the game, while Gable drove in four. Jarrett Brannen (JR/Bakersfield, Calif.) picked up the win for the Coyotes, going four and a third, allowing five earned runs, seven overall, on six hits with five strikeouts. Zach Westbrook (JR/Azle, Texas), KT Gearlds (SR/Ingram, Texas) and Ryan Sandoval (SR/El Paso, Texas) all saw action on the hill for the Coyotes.
The teams will meet at 1 p.m. Sunday for the third game of the series at Dean Evans Stadium.
