FULTON, Mo. – William Woods University (11-12, 2-5 Heart) returned home for a weekend series in the Heart of America conference match-up with Park University (9-12, 1-5 Heart), where the Owls would split once again to start the series, dropping game one and coming back for a game two win.
Parks' offense would strike first with a run in the top of the second, but would quickly see their lead fade as the Owls' offense would respond with a run of their own to knot the game up again
In the bottom of the fourth, the Owls' offense would get started again with some help from the Park defense to jolt themselves in front with the lead, with three runs in the bottom of the fourth for the 4-1 lead in favor of the Owls.
With the Owls' pitching cruising along in the game, the Pirates would put a crease into that cruise with a three-run homerun in the top of the sixth to tie the game back up to 4 a piece. With the momentum switches to Park, they would take advantage of a one-two-three inning in the bottom of the sixth to tack on another 3 in the top of the seventh to extend their lead to 7-4.
With that, the Owls would drop game one 7-4, heading into the second game riding a three-game skid and looking to get the offense going. That would be just what each squad would do offensively in game two, with 24 combined hits.
Scoring would get started with Park tacking on one run at the top of the first.
Colby Caton would step up for the Owls in the bottom of the first and give the Owls their first lead of the game with a double in the gap to score two and give the Owls a 2-1 lead.
Park would throw on another two in the top of the second and another in the top of the third to give them a 4-2 lead over the Owls heading into the bottom half of the third, with the heart of the Owls lineup coming up.
A single from Aiden Gaither would start the scoring with a base hit to score two to tie the ball game up. A pinch-hit double from
Evan Rainey would plate another two runs for the Owls to give them a four-run bottom of the third and a 6-4 lead over the Pirates.
Keith Piepmeier would come out of the pen and silence the bats of Park, going four innings out of the bullpen, striking out 3 while only giving up two runs on two walks.
The Park offense would break the streak at the top of the sixth, going for 4 runs to put themselves in front of the Owls 8-6.
With the momentum shifting towards the Pirates,
Ryan Retone would take all of it back plus some with a two-run bomb in the bottom of the sixth to start the scoring and tie the game for the Owls. Back-to-back triples from
Jude Gremillion and
Kaden Kinsler would plate one each, and a sac fly from Caton would cap off the 5-run bottom of the sixth and a 11-8 lead.
After some delay at the top of the inning, Eli Garret would slam the door on the Pirates, striking out two and earning the save in a 11-8 win in game two over the Pirates.
With the series tied at one a piece, the Owls will look to take the series tomorrow at Owl's Field for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch.
