Royals Take First Series Sweep of the Season Against Lions
LAKE WALES, Fla. - After Friday's walk-off heroics, the Warner University baseball team returned to the diamond to finish off their weekend The Sun Conference series with the Lions out of Florida Memorial University. With the win yesterday the Royals creep to just two closer to .500 with a 20-22 (6-9 TSC) record, while the Lions sit second to last in the conference standings with a 15-25-1 (5-11 TSC) record.
Game One - Box Score
Warner would get the scoring going right away in the bottom of the first inning. Right-fielder Brandon Kirby tripled to left-center. He scored right away after Dylan Gross took his first pitch for a ride down the left field line for a double. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded, John McVey walked to make it 2-0. Adrian Kaplan kept the inning alive with an infield single, just beating out the diving first baseman’s glove to drive in the Royals' third run of the inning.
Dylan Heiring got the start on the mound for the Royals, coming in with a 3-2 record. In the top the sceond inning, the Lions' roughed up Heiring with a two-run homerun to make it a 3-2 ball game. Heiring would give up another homerun in the top of the third. A strong wind blowing out of left allowed what would have been a routine fly-ball to carry over the wall to knot things up 3-3.
Gross added his second run of the game from a Sergio Perez single to left field in the bottom of the fifth inning to make it 4-3. The Royals tacked on another run when Justin Neckles singled up the middle to drive in Perez from second to make it 5-3 Warner. McVey followed suit with a single up the middle, scoring Johnny Groubert and Lovell making it 7-3.
C.J. Gonzalez came in for relief of Heiring in the top of the sixth inning. After retiring the Lions in order in the sixth, Gonzalez got into some trouble in the top of the seventh allowing three batters to score to make it a narrow 7-6 lead for the Royals.
A sac-fly by McVey in the bottom of the eighth gave Warner an important insurance run (10-8) with Chuck Wells coming into close things out in the ninth. Wells surrendered one run and had the tying and go ahead runs in scoring position before striking out the next two batters to end the threat and help the Royals pick up their second win of the weekend.
John McVey led the Royals at the plate with a 2-for-3 performance driving in five runs while scoring one. Team batting-average leader Brandon Kirby hit .500 in the game with a run scored. Dylan Gross went 2-for-5 at the dish with a run batted in and two runs scored. Johnny Groubert who pinch ran for Justin Neckles scored a team-high three runs. Dylan Heiring picked up his fourth win of the season, while Chuck Wells earned his second save.
Game Two - Box Score
Aaron Kehres got the start for the Royals in the third game of the series. He made it through the first inning well, but gave up a run in the top of the second to put Warner behind 1-0 going into the bottom of the second inning.
The Royals got the run right back when Adrian Kaplan smacked a stand-up double to left field scoring Ethan Lovell. Back to back homeruns by Justin Zanella and Ryan Thorlton extended the lead to 4-1 in favor of the Royals.
Play resumed after an hour rain delay, and the two sides would pick things back up in the bottom of the second inning. The Lions scored a run in the top of the third to make it 4-2. Ryan Thorlton drove in another run with a single in the bottom of the fourth to push their lead back to three runs. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Zanella drove in Dylan Gross to make it a comfortable 6-2 lead for the Royals.
Aaron Kehres was cruising after giving up the early runs en route to his sixth win of the season. With nine innings logged, the junior gave up two runs in the outing striking out four in the process. Ryan Thorlton went 2-for-4 at the plate with a solo shot over the left field wall. He would also drove in another run while stealing a base. Justin Zanella went 1-for-3, with three runs batted in, including a two-run homer. Ethan Lovell would go 1-for-2 at the dish with a team-high two runs scored in the game.
The sweep is the Royals' first The Sun Conference series sweep of the year and improves their record to 22-22 (8-9 TSC) while the Lions drop to 15-27-1 (5-13 TSC). Warner will travel to Savannah, Ga. next weekend to take on SCAD Savannah in another The Sun Conference series starting on Friday, April 6th at 3 p.m.