ALTON, Ill.- In what was truly a tale of two games, William Woods (23-16, 16-12 AMC) split the day with University of Health Science and Pharmacy (14-26, 9-19 AMC). The Owls tallied 20 hits on the double-header with 14 of them coming in an extra-inning nine-run victory at Lloyd Hopkins field.
The Owls dropped game three of the series, game one of the day, by a 2-3 line score. Eutectics' hurler Tristan Calmes, a 6-2 junior from Curacao, kept the Owls off the scoreboard for five innings. Tallying nine strikeouts and scattering five hits. Woods was finally able to light up the scoring column in inning 6 bringing in two runs in the frame. Jackson Kirn and Brendan Rochelle led off the inning with back-to-back singles, before the next two Owls were retired. Transfer junior Ryan Retone is credited with the lone RBI of the game for The Woods as his single to right field scored Noah Shepherd's courtesy runner Vincent Pyeatt. Shepherd reached base on a fielder's choice earlier in the inning. The second run, rather the first run scored, crossed the plate on an errant pitch during Retone's at bat scoring Ben Kern who was in the game to pinch run for Rochelle.
UHSP's closer was able to carry a relatively quiet seventh inning to a 3-2 victory over the Owls, with the only blemish in the frame being a two-out double off the bat of Colby Caton.
Game two started off much as game one with UHSP's starting arm retiring the first eight batters he faced, striking out five. The Owls surrendered one run in the bottom of the third inning before the offensive onslaught began for both teams.
The Woods started off the big inning pandemic putting up a three spot in the top of the fourth inning. Caton earned a four pitch walk before being brought in by Kaden Kinsler on a one out triple to left field to tie the game at one. The big swing of the inning was not the triple, but rather a two-run shot knocked out to dead center field off the bat of left fielder Cade Irwin. This blast gave the Owls a 3-1 lead as the game entered the middle innings.
Woods gave up a run in the bottom half of the frame, before scoring five runs in the top of the fifth. Kinsler, following his triple from an inning earlier, elevated a deep drive to center scoring Casso and Retone as the three-run home run lifted the Owls lead to six runs. The Eutectics responded by scoring four runs in the bottom half, barreling four extra-base hits in the inning. The Woods scored three more runs in the top of the sixth, before Cam Casso drove home two in the top of the seventh to grow the Owls lead to seven runs heading into what could have been the final half-inning of the game.
The Eutectics had other ideas entirely, as they knocked five singles in combination with four walks to score seven runs and even the game at 13 runs. In the eighth, William Woods scored nine runs cementing a 22-13 win over UHSP. Four of the nine runs scored on a grand slam pounded by Owls' slugger Jacob McWhirter. The first baseman for game two, McWhirter, was also responsible for the first RBI of the inning as he singled to centerfield scoring Kinsler, who led off the inning with a triple.
Owls' skipper John Cavness left Evan Johnston, who collected the last two outs of the seventh inning, on the mound to finish the game. EJ tossed up a zero to close out the game and carry The Woods to a 22-13 win.
William Woods is at Backer Sports Complex on Wednesday for a midweek matchup against University of St. Mary Spires. Woods holds the all-time record 5-4, winning the last three matchups between the two historic schools.
