PITTSBURG, Kan. – The Washburn baseball team trailed 7-2 before tying up the game with five runs in the sixth, but Pittsburg State scored a couple late runs in the eighth to secure the 9-7 victory in the MIAA Tournament quarterfinal elimination game on Sunday afternoon. The Ichabods' season comes to an end with a record of 20-22 while the Gorillas (28-14) advance to the conference semifinal round next week.
The Ichabods got the first hit of the game as
Parker Dunn led off the second inning with a single down the right field line and then
Brett Ingram sent the first pitch he saw over the right field fence to give Washburn a quick 2-0 advantage.
The Gorillas pushed one run across in the bottom of the third after a leadoff double came around to score on an RBI single. Washburn starter
Rane Pfeifer got out of a bases loaded jam with a strikeout to end the inning.
Command issues proved costly for the Ichabods in the fourth frame as the Gorillas took the lead with six runs on two hits, one of which was a three-run homer, while drawing four free passes to get on base.
The script flipped in the sixth inning as Pittsburg State's pitchers began to struggle.
Zion Bowlin hit a one out single to left center field to knock out the Gorillas' starter. The Ichabods jumped on the new arm with a single by Dunn and an RBI single from Ingram.
Peter Shearer was hit by the pitch to load the bases for Washburn and force another pitching change. The next two batters,
Kros Bay and
Cole Emerson, were both hit on the first pitch of their at bats to bring in two runs. The fourth pitcher of the inning came on and had
Wyatt Featherston down in the count when Featherston turned on the 0-2 pitch and ripped a single to left field to score two runs and even the score at 7-all.
With the score still locked at seven heading to the bottom of the eighth, Pittsburg State started to make some noise with back-to-back singles to start the frame and then drew a one out walk to juice the bases. Washburn brought in
Zach Philbin and on the third pitch, Garrett McGowan hit a line drive up the middle that struck Philbin and went off towards short stop
Xavier De Leon who tossed it over to
Eric Hinostroza at second to get one out. Just as Hinostroza was turning to throw to first, the Pittsburg State runner slid into him to break up the double play and the throw was off target as two Gorillas scored.
Washburn was unable to create a rally of its own and went down in order in the top of the ninth to end the game.
Ingram hit his seventh homer of the season and finished the day 2-4 with three RBI and scored twice. Dunn went 3-4 at the plate and also scored two runs. Featherston had two hits and drove in two runs.
Braden Minor received the loss after coming on to start the bottom of the eighth.
Dalton Huggins threw four relief innings and held the Gorillas to two runs on three hits with two walks.
NOTES
- Washburn reached the MIAA Tournament for the first time since the 2016 season.
- The Ichabods' 18 conference victories (18-15) marks the most since 2016 (26-13).
- Washburn ended the regular season with five-straight series victories, capped off with a sweep at Northwest Missouri.
- The offense cranked out 43 home runs, the most since 2016.
- Three Ichabods earned MIAA Player of the Week honors: Brett Ingram (March 16), Brock Gilliam (March 23), and Tyler Clark-Chiapparelli (April 20).
- Nine Washburn players earned All-MIAA honors, the most selections since nine Ichabods were chosen in 2014.
- Gilliam and Ingram earned second team honors while Dunn and Clark-Chiapparelli were third team picks. Xavier De Leon, Eric Hinostroza, Zion Bowlin, Kros Bay, and Zach Philbin received honorable mention accolades.
- Hinostroza was named an MIAA Gold Glove award winner at first base.
- On May 14, senior starting pitcher Gilliam became Washburn's single season strikeout leader, breaking the record which was set in 1991 by Rick DeHart.
- Four strikeouts later, Gilliam became the program's all-time career leader in strikeouts. He finishes his career with 221 strikeouts and 110 this season.
