TOPEKA, Kan. – Washburn baseball struggled with its pitching command on Friday evening and dropped the series opener against Newman, 10-9. Washburn closes out its final home series of the season on Saturday with a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. Twelve Ichabod seniors will be recognized on the field 15 minutes before the first game.
The Jets (8-19, 7-18 MIAA) led off the game with a home run on the second pitch to jump out to a 1-0 advantage.
Washburn (14-20, 13-15 MIAA) responded with a solo homer of its own to tie the game as
Zion Bowlin launched a two-out home run over the left field fence.
The Ichabod pitchers struggled with command throughout the second inning and allowed five runs on six walks and a wild pitch. The Jets added two more runs in the third to go up 8-1.
Washburn started to chip away at the deficit in the bottom of the third with back-to-back RBI singles to make it an 8-3 game.
Newman got one run back the following half inning to push its lead to 9-3.
Cole Warner, the third pitcher of the evening, came on in relief in the fifth inning and recorded nine-straight outs with 1-2-3 innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh.
After back-to-back singles from
Xavier De Leon and
Eric Hinostroza to get things going in the bottom of the fifth, Washburn added one run on a sacrifice fly by Bowlin.
The top of the Washburn lineup came through again to start the seventh as De Leon drew a leadoff walk and Hinostroza followed that up with a hard-hit single to the third baseman. Bowlin cleared the bases with his second homer of the game with a three-run shot to deep center field to make it a two run game, 9-7.
The Jets answered again with one run in the eighth to extend its lead to 10-7.
In the bottom of the eighth,
Carson Sader battled during a 10 pitch at bat before drawing a leadoff walk and then stole second to get in scoring position. De Leon brought home Sader on an RBI single through the right side to cut Newman's lead to two again.
The Jets went down quietly in the top of the ninth and
Parker Dunn led off the home half of the frame with a double down the right field line. Up next was
Peter Shearer, who reached on a throwing error by the second baseman and advanced to second on the errant throw while Dunn raced home safely. Unfortunately, the tying run would be left stranded at second as a fly out and groundout ended the late rally.
Every Ichabod had at least one hit in tonight's 15-hit contest. Bowlin finished the game 3-4 at the dish with two homers and six RBI. He has now hit a home run in three-consecutive games and in four of the last five. Hinostroza also had three hits and scored twice. De Leon had two hits, two runs scored and drove in a run.
Rane Pfeifer was tabbed with the loss, going 1.1 innings and allowed six runs on one hit and five walks. Warner worked 3.2 innings and allowed one run and two singles while striking out five.
Zach Philbin finished out the game and got four outs and surrendered just one hit and recorded a strikeout.
