William Penn Swept in Second Day of Peru State Series

Peru, Neb.--The Statesmen baseball team came up short twice as it closed out its weekend series with Heart of America Athletic Conference foe Peru State Monday.

A day after splitting a double dip with the Bobcats, WPU (8-8, 1-3 Heart) fell by scores of 15-8 and 11-4.

The visitors were outhit 16-12 in the opener, but struck first as Bradley Soto (Jr., Davenport, Fla., Business Management) hit a solo home run in the top of the first.  Unfortunately, PSC (8-12, 3-5 Heart) answered with three in the bottom half.

William Penn recaptured the lead with its biggest inning of the day, producing five runs in the second.  Juan Perez (Jr., Harlem, N.Y., Sports Management) started the scoring with a double to plate Keoni Young (Jr., Las Vegas, Nev., Exercise Science).  Carlos Herrera (Jr., Bronx, N.Y., Kinesiology) added an RBI single, while Justin Knudson (So., San Jose, Calif., Sports Management) came home on a double steal.

Soto, who was part of the double theft, eventually scored again to cap the frame.

The hosts controlled the remainder of the game, however, outscoring WPU 12-2 down the stretch.  The lone Statesmen runs came on a Soto two-run blast in the fourth.

Soto was extraordinary, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs and three runs.  Herrera and Otten were also 2-for-4 in the setback.

The team's fortunes did not improve in the nightcap as Peru State tallied the game's first 11 runs.  WPU closed with the final four runs, but it was not enough to grab a split for the day.

A double by Jagger Mitchell (Jr., Rock Springs, Wyo., Business Management) brought in Hector Dominguez (Jr., Fontana, Calif., Exercise Science) and Logan Bialek (Jr., South Elgin, Ill., Exercise Science), while Abraham Arroyo (Grad., Camuy, P.R., Master's of Sports Management), who was 2-for-3 with a walk in the contest, cleared the fence with a two-run homer.

At game's end, the navy and gold were outhit 12-7.

Four pitchers toed the rubber in the second game with Jack Nesje (So., Sioux Falls, S.D., Biology) having the most success.  He tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings out of the bullpen with three strikeouts.

"We were beaten by a better team today," Head Coach Mike Laird said.  "Some early pitching mistakes were made that we could not recover from.  We lacked some of our focus and Peru State exploited it."

Next Up: William Penn returns to Oskaloosa Saturday to face Park in a Heart doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.