Baseball Opens Season With Split Against Peru St.
Parkville, MO – The Hastings College baseball team opened its season with a split against Peru St. on Friday afternoon winning game one 6-4 before dropping game two 4-2.
Parkville, MO – The Hastings College baseball team opened its season with a split against Peru St. on Friday afternoon winning game one 6-4 before dropping game two 4-2.
James Velasquez was on the mound for game one and early on he had his stuff working well for the Broncos as he struck out the side in the first. But first it was his offense that gave him a leg up in the top of the first.
Tristan Martinez led the game off by getting hit by a pitch followed by a single from Mason Masur. After Matt Lucero walked to load the bases with one out, Dylan Otto ripped a 2 RBI single to left scoring Masur and Martinez for the early 2-0 lead. Thomas Hartman would make it 3-0 when he reached on a fielding error by the shortstop.
Velasquez was able to work around a two out double in the second and then the bats went back to work in the third.
Tyler Welsh reached via a walk and then Lucero singled to right. Otto stayed hot with a RBI single to center to make it 4-0 in favor of the Broncos. Tyler Kissler then picked up a RBI of his own on an infield single that plated Lucero as HC was now up 5-0.
Again Velasquez worked a 1,2,3 inning in the third and fourth innings but would eventually give up his first run on a double in the fifth. After the Bobcats scored two more in the sixth, Hastings got a much needed insurance run on a RBI sac fly from Eli Merritt to make it 6-3.
Cole Peterson did make things a bit interesting in the seventh as he gave up a run and had runners on second and third but got Ivan Medina to ground out to first to end the game as the Broncos came away victorious.
Velasquez went 4.2 innings giving up just the one run on three hits while striking out six. Otto had a big game at the plate going 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Jaden Stone would go 2-for-4 in game one.
Game two the sticks stayed silent as Peru St. opened up a 4-0 lead on the Broncos. They did come to life in the sixth as Merritt led the inning off with a solo home run to right to get the Broncos on the board and then Cam McKenzie picked up a RBI groundout to make it a 4-2 ball game. Hastings did manage to get two runners on in the seventh but a pop out ended the game as HC settled for the split.
Merritt went 2-for-3 with a RBI while Jared Delgado made his Bronco debut by going 2-for4.
Hastings is now 1-1 on the year and will be back in action Saturday Feb. 10 hitting the road again to Parkville, MO to take on William Woods in a doubleheader set to begin at 1:00 pm at Riverside Ballpark.
