Fulton, Mo 4/22/2023- The Westminster College baseball team welcomed the Spalding University Golden Eagles to Saucier Field for the final home series of the season. It was senior day, and the Blue Jays honored their six seniors, Coltin Green (St. Anthony, Mo. / St. Elizabeth), Spencer Keiser (Old Monroe, Missouri/ Winfield), Steven Diaz (Highland, Il. / Highland), Jake Waeltermann (Barnhart, MO / Seckman), Hunter Mulholland (Eureka, Mo. / Eureka) and Nathan Shepard (Warrenton, Mo. / Warrenton) in between games. On the field, the Golden Eagles would dominate game one, winning 11-1. The Blue Jays would respond in game two with the seniors leading the way to a 14-7 victory. With the split, Westminster moves to 18-15 overall on the season and 7-7 in the SLIAC. Spalding moves to 23-8 on the season and 11-3 in the conference.
Game One: Box Score
Trent Morrow (Russellville, Mo. / Russellville) got the start on the mound in game one, his eighth of the season. He would go six innings, throwing 86 pitches. Morrow recorded one strikeout and gave up twelve hits and five earned runs. Brian Henke (Silex, Mo / Silex) came on in the 7th inning to finish the game. He would strike out two batters and give up four runs on three hits. Morrow was hung with the loss and moves to 2-4 on the season.
Spalding would start the game hot, hitting four singles in a row to start the game, scoring three runs in the process. Diaz would start the Blue Jays' half of the first inning with a leadoff double to right field. Diaz would move up to second after a ground out. Payton Whitehead (Belleville, Il. / Belleville West) smoked the ball to right field for a one-out triple and scored Diaz. The next two Blue Jay batters would strike out and strand Whitehead on third base. Westminster would be unable to get a runner past second base for the rest of the game and go down 11-1.
Game Two: Box Score
The Blue Jays would regroup in-between games and score runs in the first three innings of the game. Diaz got the bottom of the first inning started with a single to center field. He would go on to steal second base. Whitehead would ground out to second but moved Diaz up the third base. Skyler Bushey (Saint Albans, Vt / Bellows Free Academy) would single to center field to score Diaz and give Westminster the early 1-0 lead.
Austin Mayton (Wentzville, Mo. / Fort Zumwalt North) got the bottom of the second inning going with a single to right field. Matt Lukins (Clark, Mo / Rock Bridge) followed suit to put runners on second and first with one out in the inning. The senior centerfielder Diaz stepped up to the plate and hit a monster three-run home run to put Westminster up 4-0.
Hunter Mulholland started the bottom of the third with a leadoff single through the right side of the infield. Bringing fellow Spencer Keiser to the dish. He would hit a no-doubter over the scoreboard in right field for a two-run home run and got Saucier Field rocking on senior day as the Blue Jays took a 6-0 lead.
Spalding would answer with back-to-back three-run innings in the top of the fourth and the fifth to tie the game 6-6. Westminster responded in the bottom of the fifth with Lukins and Diaz drawing back-to-back walks for Bushey to hit a two-RBI double to left field to put the Jays back on top 6-8.
The Blue Jays would score four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning with Keiser and Mayton hitting singles to right. Lukins would then hit an RBI single to left to score Keiser and put runners on the corners for Diaz. Diaz would deliver his second home run of the game hitting a three-run homer to right field and putting Westminster up 12-6. They would add on two more runs in the bottom of the seventh with Quin Adelson (Louisville, KY / North Oldham) hitting a double down the left field line. Coltin Green would get in the action, hitting an RBI single to center field, scoring Donovan Bohler (St. Louis, Mo / St. John Vianney) who came in to pinch run for Adelson. Keiser would hit a ground-rule double after the ball went under the gate in right field. Mayton would hit a sacrifice fly to deep center field to score Green and increase the Westminster lead to 14-7 and that would go on to be in the final score as the Blue Jays split the doubleheader.
Bode Gebbink (St, Joseph, Il. / St. Joeseph-Ogden) was on the mound to start game two. He would go five innings, striking out four batters, and gave up six runs on seven hits. Waeltermann, Hayden Sanborn (Arnold, Mo / St. John Vianney), and Kaleb Hinkle-Pruett (Alton, IL / Roxana) would come in from the bullpen and combine for four innings. Waeltermann had one strikeout and gave up one run on three hits. Gebbink earned the win and improved to a 6-1 record, placing him second in the SLIAC in wins.
The senior Blue Jays combined for ten hits, nine RBIs, and eight runs in the game. Diaz led the way, going 4-5 with two home runs, six RBIs, and four runs. Keiser was 3-5 with a double, two runs, and two RBIs.
The Blue Jays will be back in action tomorrow, Sunday, April 23rd for the third and final game of the series against Spalding University. The first pitch is set for 12:00 PM.
