PARKVILLE, Mo. – This afternoon the Harris-Stowe State University baseball team was back in action when they traveled to Parkville, Missouri, to take on the Park (Mo.) University Pirates in the final two games of a four game series. The Hornets, who swept the doubleheader yesterday, split the doubleheader today as they won the first game by a final score of 15-8 and lost the second game by a final score of 11-10 to improve to 3-3 on the season. With the split, the Pirates improve to 1-7 on the season.
In the first game of the doubleheader, the Pirates came out and scored two runs in the bottom of the first to take an early 2-0 lead. The Hornets bounced back quickly and scored two runs in the top of the second and one run in the top of the third to take a 3-2 advantage. The Pirates responded by scoring two runs in the bottom of the third, but four runs in the top of the fourth and two runs in the top of the fifth put the Hornets up 9-4 in the contest. The Pirates once again responded by scoring a run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to 9-5, but a six run rally from the Hornets in the top of the sixth put them up 15-5 late in the game. The Pirates did their best to get back into the contest and were able to cut the lead to 15-8, but that was as close as they would get as the Hornets picked up the final outs to solidify the win.
Alex Williams (1-0) was the starting pitcher in this one as he allowed eight hits and four earned runs while striking out eight in 6.0 inning on the mound.
Matt Gilbers came in to relieve Williams as he allowed two hits and two earned runs while striking out two in the final inning of the game.
Matt Janocik and
Austin Palicios led the way at the plate for the Hornets as they both went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI. In addition,
Davie Pound went 1-for-4 with a three run homerun,
Turner McDonald went 1-for-4 with two RBI,
Maurice La Fon went 2-for-3 with an RBI, and
Logan Dryden went 2-for-2 with two RBI to round out the top performers for the Hornets.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Pirates got off to a quick start as they scored three runs in the bottom of the first and two runs in the bottom of the third to take a 5-0 lead in the game. The Hornets bounced back and were able to score three runs in the top of the fourth, but another three run rally from the Pirates in the bottom half of the inning put them up 8-3 in the game. Harris-Stowe once again was able to cut into the lead by scoring two runs in the top of the fifth, but another run from the Pirates in the bottom half of the frame put them up 9-5 heading into the sixth. The Hornets bats came alive in the top of the sixth as they rallied for five runs in the inning to take their first lead of the game. However, the Pirates tied the game up in the bottom of the seventh to send the game to extras and then were able to bring a run across in the bottom of the eighth to solidify the win.
Armondo Sierra (0-1) was the starting pitcher in this one as he allowed 11 hits and eight earned runs while striking out five in 3.1 innings of work.
Brian Myers (1-0),
Alec Sierra (0-0), and
Dajuan Griffin (0-2) came in to relieve Sierra as the three combined to allow seven hits and three earned runs while striking out two in the final 4.1 innings of the game.
Matt Janocik once again led the Hornets at the plate as he went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. In addition to Janocik,
Austin Palicios went 2-for-5 with two RBI, and
Bay To went 2-for-4 with two runs scored to round out the top performers for the Hornets.
The Hornets will return to the field on Friday, March 12
th when they play host to the Waldorf (Iowa) University Warriors for the first two games of a four game set at Stars Park. First pitch of the doubleheader is set for noon.
