JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Washburn Baseball won its sixth consecutive in impressive fashion on Friday, April 22, rolling over Lincoln in a road contest, 20-3 in seven innings.
Washburn (27-13, 22-8 MIAA) stayed within three games of first place in the MIAA standings and has now won six straight.
A complete box score for Friday's contest was not immediately available.
Mike Hefferan (7-2) pitched five complete in the win, striking out seven with three runs allowed.
Ryne Dowling threw a perfect sixth inning with one strikeout before
Braden Larkey (0.2 innings pitched, two strikeouts) and
Garrett Bryant (0.1 innings pitched, one strikeout) combined to throw the seventh.
Parker Gibson (one RBI) went 4-for-4 in the leadoff role, while
Payton Soicher had a home run, a triple and a double while going 4-for-4 with four RBI.
Riley Krane (three RBI) and
Lance Barkley each had two hits, while
Landon Hay had a grand slam, Dan Reilly had a solo home run and
Bowe Behymer blasted a three-run shot.
Scoreless through one, Washburn took an early lead with three runs in the second.
Tanner Triggs reached on a fielder's choice before moving to second as Behymer walked, and Soicher picked up a pair of RBI with his second triple of the season. In the next plate appearance, Soicher scored off a sacrifice fly from
Zane Mapes.
LU got one back in the third and a pair of runs in the fourth to tie it, 3-all, before Washburn broke things open with 12 runs in the sixth. Back-to-back singles from
David Gauntt and
Lance Barkley put two on for Triggs, who plated Gauntt with an RBI double before Behymer walked to load the bases. Three more runs came in for WU after singles from Soicher and Gibson sandwiched a Mapes walk.
From there, Krane singled to score Soicher and Mapes and a throwing error on the play allowed Gibson to race home as well, making it 10-3. In a first and third situation later in the inning, Barkley stole second and Krane dashed home on the throw to second for WU's sixth run of the inning. Behymer then ripped his first home run in a uniform in three-run fashion, and Soicher closed the scoring with a solo shot in the next at-bat.
Already in run-rule territory, Washburn tacked on five more runs in the top of the seventh to go up 20-3. Three straight walks loaded the bases for the Ichabods, and
Landon Hay blasted a grand slam home run (his first career long ball at WU). Dan Riley picked up the second back-to-back home run for WU on the day in a pinch hit appearance, hitting his first career round tripper in solo fashion for the final Ichabod run of the day.
The sixth inning was the first time Washburn has scored at least 10 runs in an inning since April 26, 2014 against Northeastern State. Washburn has now hit back-to-back home runs four times this season, and the 20 runs was the most for WU since March 5, 2015 when the Ichabods scored 22 against Bemidji State.
Washburn and Lincoln play game two of the series on Saturday, April 23 at 1 p.m. There will be no live stats available, but updates can be found by following @wusports on Twitter.
