Baseball Takes One of Three from Evangel

Springfield, Mo. – Warrior baseball made their farthest trip of the season for conference play making their way to Springfield, Mo. to take on the Evangel Valor. Sterling was outmatched in game one and struggled to string any offense together and lost game one 12-2. Game two was much more closely contested as the Warriors lost 6-5 in ten innings. Game three went the way of the Warriors as a couple of big innings helped them earn their only win of the series, 13-11.

Game 1 – Sterling 2, Evangel 12

It was a run-rule victory in the opening game of this three game series. Sterling fell behind 4-0 in the first inning and gave up another run in the third. Sterling was able to put a run across the plate in the fifth inning on a Tyler Gates sacrifice fly to left field, but Evangel answered with four more runs in the bottom of the inning, two more in the sixth and finally the walkoff run in the seventh.

Tyler Gates had two of Sterling's seven total hits and had one of their two RBIs; Austin Santiago had the other. Cipriano Rivera was the pitcher of record and took the loss pitching four innings and giving up nine runs.

Game 2 – Sterling 5, Evangel 6 – 10 Innings

Sterling went into extra innings after taking a one-run lead in the sixth inning. Most of the scoring was done in the first three innings with both teams scoring a run in the first, Sterling got three in the second inning compared to Evangel's one, but Evangel got two more in the third. Tied at four, Sterling scored the go-ahead run in the sixth to take a 5-4 lead, but a run given up in the bottom of the eighth tied the game once again. Sterling was unable to score in the ninth and tenth, but it was Evangel who found a way to scrape together a run in the bottom of the tenth sealing the victory for the Valor.

Trent Canaan got the start and went 6 innings and gave up four runs. In relief was Ryan Speer giving up a run in two and a third innings and closing things out was Andrew Mason, who took the extra innings loss. Dustin Chartrand had two hits for Sterling and also led the team with two RBIs.

Game 3 – Sterling 13, Evangel 11

The Warriors finally broke through scoring the final three runs of the game to take one out of three games in the series. David Lira got the start and gave up seven runs in the first inning before Sterling answered with six runs in the second. With a runner on and two outs in the inning, Sterling took advantage of an error that opened up the floodgates for Sterling's six runs, highlighted by an Andrew Dutro two run double. Sterling scored six runs on five hits with all six runs coming with two outs. Sterling trailed by one after two innings of play. Evangel got two more runs in the third before Sterling took their first lead of the day with a four-run fourth. Being patient at the plate, they were able to score two runs from walks. Evangel came right back with two more runs in the fourth.

The Warriors were able to string some hits together in the sixth to tie the game at eleven. Taking advantage of an early error in the seventh, Sterling scored two runs to close out the scoring in the ballgame. Sterling came away with the 13-11 victory to get away with one win over the weekend.

Dustin Chartrand pitched four innings in relief and got the win. Out of Sterling's fourteen hits, Dutro and Joseph Almanza had six of them, and they each had two RBIs each. Dutro also led the team scoring three runs.

Sterling is now 15-21 overall this season and 9-16 in the KCAC. Tuesday afternoon, Sterling will take on Kansas Wesleyan for the second game of their season series. Sterling lost the first game 10-1 in Sterling just under a week ago.

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