SWEDES WIN 10-7 AGAINST TABOR COLLEGE

Hillsboro, Kan. - The Bethany College Baseball team hit the road to take on Tabor College for the second game of this mid-week conference series. The Swedes would win by the score of 10-7 and tie the series at 1-1. With the win, Bethany improves their conference record to 4-12 sitting in 9th in the conference. With the loss, Tabor's conference record goes to 11-5 and is sitting in 4th place in the conference.

In the top of the second inning the Swedes would rally to get one run across thanks to a Willard Frizzell's line-drive double off the center field wall. Connor Crayton would have a quality at-bat grounding out to second but allowing Frizzell to get to third base. With one out Randy Good would single and pick up the RBI scoring Frizzell and giving the Swedes an early 1-0 lead. 

Tabor would eventually end up taking the lead scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning, and 3 runs in the bottom of the 4th inning to have a 1-5 lead heading into the top of the 5th inning. The top of the 5th started off with a Caleb Rodriguez walk who would get courtesy run for by Andrew Massey. Caleb Copeland would execute a hit-and-run to get Massey to second base but would be thrown out at first for one out. A single by Noel Perez followed by Joseph Rivera reaching on a fielder's choice would score Massey. Luis Ramos would rope a single to move runners to first and second with two outs. Willard Frizzell would come up huge, getting the hit the Swedes needed. Frizzell would hit a 3-run home run to right-center field to tie the game at 5-5. The next batter was Connor Crayton who would draw a walk, steal second base, advance on a wild pitch, and eventually score because of a balk call on the Tabor pitcher. The Swedes capped off a 5 run inning to take the lead 6-5. 

Tabor would grab the lead back, scoring 1 run in the bottom of the 6th inning to tie the game and 1 run in the 7th to take the lead 6-7. The Swedes offense kept grinding at-bats to scratch runs in the 8th and 9th inning to secure the win. A big lead off double by Caleb Rodriguez allowed for the Swedes to score him to tie the game up at 7-7 in the 8th inning. In the top half of the 9th inning the Swedes would get their lead off hitter on base, Connor Crayton, from a hit by pitch. Randy Good would draw a walk and would be pinch-run for by Ashton Gatica. Emanuel Alicea laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move runners in scoring position. Another clutch double by Caleb Rodriguez would score both runs and give the Swedes a 9-7 lead. Rodriguez would move to third on the throw with less than two outs, Caleb Copeland gets the 3rd run in the inning on a sacrifice fly and extending the lead to the final score of 10-7.  

Willian Figueroa-Soto would get the start for the Swedes and would last 3 innings on 6 hits, 5 earned runs, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts. Despite the line, Figueroa had a good outing avoiding big innings and keeping the Swedes still in the game. The staff would go to Jacob Mallozzi who would account for the win. Mallozzi would go 4 innings giving up 5 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts. Judd McCalll would pick up the save for the Swedes and his first on the year. 

The Swedes bats would continue to stay hot and keep the scoring coming following the past weekend. As an offense they have been able to score 10 or more runs in the past three games, with 35 hits, and have outscored opponents 36 to 25.

Up next…

The Bethany College Baseball team will be at home to take on #13 Oklahoma Wesleyan with the series starting Friday, March 31st, at 2:00 pm and a double-header Saturday, April 1st, at 12:00 pm cst

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