CLAREMORE, Okla. – Washburn baseball held on for a 4-3 victory against Southeastern Oklahoma in a neutral site contest on Monday afternoon. The Ichabods will stay on the road and head to Joplin, Mo. to play a non-conference game at No. 17 Missouri Southern on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Hits were hard to come by through the first four innings and neither team had a runner go past second base until the bottom of the fifth. With one out,
Caden Bressler recorded the first Washburn (25-17) hit of the day with a single through the left side.
Otto Jones also singled through the left side, but the throw from left field to the infield was in time to get Bressler out trying to reach third on the play.
Cal Watkins drew a four-pitch walk and
Cale Savage kept the line moving with another single through the left side that brought in the first run of the game.
Southeastern Oklahoma (21-21) went down in order in the sixth and changed pitchers at the start of the bottom of the frame.
Easton Bruce landed a one out single into left field and
Andrew Schmidtlein reached base after getting hit in the helmet by the pitch. With two outs, both runners advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch and on a full count, Bressler came through with a two-RBI single to push the Ichabod lead to 3-0.
The Savage Storm got one run back in the top of the seventh with a leadoff homerun to left field.
The first pitch of the bottom of the eighth hit Bruce and a failed pickoff attempt errant throw allowed him to move up to second base. Schmidtlein drove in the run with a single to center field and make it 4-1 in favor of the Ichabods.
SEOSU put together a rally in the top of the ninth. After getting the first out on two pitches, the Savage Storm loaded the bases with two walks and a single. A six-pitch walk brought one run in and a sacrifice fly brought in another run to trim the lead to 4-3, but the final out was recorded on a flyout to center field.
Both teams had exactly seven hits on the afternoon and the only extra base hit was the solo home run by the Savage Storm. Bressler went 2-4 and drove in two runs. Savage was 2-3 with a walk and an RBI. Bruce reached base three times with a hit, walk, and a HBP and also scored twice.
Chase Torkelson improved to 7-2 for the season after going 6 2/3 innings and allowing only one run, six hits, and two walks and finishing his start with four strikeouts.
Jayden Payne allowed only one base runner, a walk, in his 1 1/3 innings of work.
Charlie Kiefer picked up his fifth save of the season after closing out the ninth inning.
