HENDERSON, Tenn. – The William Woods University Baseball team dropped its opening game of the 2016 American Midwest Conference (AMC) Baseball Tournament on Wednesday afternoon. The Owls were defeated by host Freed-Hardeman University, 11-1, in eight innings.
 
The Owls will now move to the losers bracket of the double-elimination and play tomorrow, Thursday May 5th when they play the loser of Central Baptist College and Williams Baptist College at 2 p.m. at Freed-Hardeman.
 
Game Flow
The Owls looked to get to the Lions starter, Brandon Guske, in the first. Nolan Aherin led off the game with a double to deep left field. Alex St. Pierre followed by moving him to third base with a sacrifice bunt. However, Aherin was stranded on third base as the next two hitters were retired by Guske.
 
Freed-Hardeman got to Owls starter, John Cavness, in the second inning. Houston Looser singled to center and moved to second on a ground out. After a fly out, the Lions had a runner on third with two outs. Joseph Leatherwood followed with a walk putting runners on the corners. Nathan Van Northwick singled scoring one. JC Daily followed with an RBI single extending its lead to 2-0.
 
The Lions extended its lead in the third inning. Freed-Hardeman scored four runs on four hits growing its lead to 6-0. JC Daily put the Lions ahead 6-0 after an RBI single to shallow right field.
 
William Woods looked as if they would get to Guske in the fourth. Ryan Phillips led off with a bunt single. With one out and a runner on, Patrick Dillion and Jansen Dillon followed with back-to-back singles to load the bases. However, Guske got Grant Garrett grounded into a double play ending the inning.
 
In the fifth inning the Owls got onto the board. With one out, Tanner Wetrich tripled down the right field line. Aherin followed with a sacrifice fly to left field scoring Wetrich and trimming the lead down to 6-1.
 
The Lions continued to grow its lead as they extended the lead to 8-1 in the fifth. Van Northwick doubled home one run and later in the inning Daily double homed the second run for the Lions. The lead grew to 10-1 in the sixth inning when they scored two runs on three hits.
 
William Woods could not get anything else going in the seventh or eighth inning against Guske. In the eighth inning, Freed-Hardeman scored a run on a Zac Carter single. The single ended the contest as Freed-Hardeman run ruled the Owls, 11-1.
 
By the Numbers
6 – The Owls collected six hits in the contest
1 – WWU scored one run in the contest
7 – William Woods struck out seven batters
2 – Ryan Phillips led the Owls with two hits
1 – Nolan Aherin collected the Owls only RBI
1 – Tanner Wetrich collected William Woods only triple of the game
 
Starting Pitcher Lines
WWU – John Cavness, 4.1 IP, 10H, 8R (8ER), 4BB's, 3K's
FHU – Brandon Guske, 8 IP, 6H, 1R (1ER), 1BB's, 4K's