Warriors Outslug Royals

Recap, photo courtesy of William Jessup University

Jessup battles back and forth with visiting Hope but Warriors prevail

LINCOLN, Calif. - In one of the craziest and longest games in Jessup baseball history, the Warriors find a way to narrowly edge out the Royals in a 19-17 victory to open the three-game series on Wednesday afternoon against Hope International. The high scoring game resulted in Jessup improving to 33-6 overall and 23-2 in conference play. The Warriors started off cold behind the plate, trailing the Royals who got a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning. The Warriors would finally start coming across the plates in the bottom of the 3rd. With Noah Shackles on second and Will Law on first, a deep triple off the centerfield wall from Austen Swift would bring home the tying runs. 

Hope International took the opportunity to distance themselves in the top of the 4th, taking back the lead 6-2. But this would not last long as the Warriors exploded offensively in the bottom of the 4th, putting up an 11 spot inning.  Back-to-back doubles from Joe Starick and Josh Duitsman cut the lead to 6-3.  Shortly following, Shackles took his base on a walk and Sam Curtis singled to load the bases, with Connor Braun at the plate.  Braun would single up the middle to bring home Shackles and Duitsman, closing in on Hope's lead, 6-5.  Kawai Takemura would come in to pinch run for Braun, who was quickly advanced to 2nd as Law took his base on a walk.  With bases loaded once again, the Warriors were able to bring home two more runs, courtesy of back-to-back walks for Swift and Cal Koga. 

With the Warriors in the lead for the first time in the game, 7-6, they kept the bats hot.  Bases were still loaded as Starick put the ball in play for a single down the right side, bringing around Law for the 8-6 lead. A walk for Steve Pastora would bring home the 9th run for the Warriors, with runners on every base.  Duitsman would follow with a sac fly to bring home Joey Torres, pinch running for Koga, distancing the lead to 10-6. To finish off the inning with a bang, Shackles would hit a bomb over the left field fence, bringing home Starick and Pastora to complete the inning with the 13-6 advantage.

Insistent to stay in the ball game, the Royals rallied back with four runs of their own to cut the Warriors lead to 13-10 in the top of the 6th.  However, Jessup continued to keep Hope at bay, as they answered back with 3 runs of their own in the bottom of the 6th, creating a 16-10 cushion.

As expected, Hope continued to chip at Jessup's lead over the next two innings, bringing the game to 16-14 in the bottom of the 8th frame.  Determined to bring home the first win of the series Jessup opened up the floodgates offensively once again.  Leading the charge was Swift with a 3-run homer to put the Warriors ahead 19-14.

Hope was not done fighting, as they managed to put up 3 more runs in the top of the 9th but ultimately the gap was too big to close, as Jessup saw out the 19-17 victory.

Head Coach Jake McKinley reflects on the day, "Today was one of those days where every run mattered and our guys did a great job of continuing to push the envelope on offense. Multiple pitchers stepped up on short rest, contributing to an overall great team effort."