Millington, Tenn. – The Kentucky Wesleyan baseball team was swept in a four-game neutral site series vs. the Parkside Rangers from Sunday, February 23 – Monday, February 24.
The series was originally scheduled to be played in Owensboro over the previous weekend, but weather forced the move to a neutral site with each game being just seven innings.
The Panthers fell to 3-4 overall this season while Parkside began their season 4-0 with the sweep.
In the first game of the series Sunday afternoon, Panthers' ace Evan Oakley had a phenomenal outing with zero earned runs allowed and five strikeouts in 5.1 innings pitched.
His offense showed up early, as Jase Mizell hit a solo home run in the first inning to put the Panthers up 1-0. Later, Braden Vinyard's single drove in Mizell to double the Wesleyan lead at 2-0.
Unfortunately, Wesleyan was unable to hold on to the lead in the seven-inning affair. Parkside scored four runs in the seventh frame to take home the series-opening victory.
In game two on Sunday, the Rangers started fast with four runs in the first frame to take a 4-0 lead. The Panthers had a response in the fifth, putting up five runs on a Rhett Dysholm sacrifice fly, a Ben Brombaugh RBI single, a Braxton French two-RBI single, and a Cade Gudalis RBI single to move out in front at 5-4.
Parkside tied the game in the top of the sixth, leading to the game going to extras. Later, the Rangers stole the lead back with two runs in the top of the ninth and Wesleyan was unable to match as Parkside took a 2-0 series lead.
Game three, the first game of Monday's doubleheader, was similar to game two. The Rangers got off to a fast start once again with three runs in the second inning, but Wesleyan came back to tie in the bottom half of that frame, using Vinyard's first home run of the season and a two-RBI single by Elijah Stockton.
Again, Parkside came to play late. The Rangers hit a three-run home run in the top of the seventh to take a 6-3 advantage and later held on to go up 3-0 in the series.
In the fourth and final game, the Rangers once again took an early lead with two runs in the first frame. The Panthers answered the call with three runs in the second on a sacrifice fly by Stockton and a two-RBI triple by Dysholm, moving out in front at 3-2.
Later, Parkside tied the game with a run in the fourth, then took the lead for good after a five-run fifth inning. Dysolm and Vinyard both tallied RBI doubles in the final innings, but the Panthers ultimately fell 8-5.
Wesleyan is finally set to open the home campaign at Panther Park this weekend with a series against Purdue Northwest from Friday-Sunday. First pitch of game one is set for Friday, February 28 at 1:00 PM.
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