April 20, 2007 Recap

April 20, 2007

Lamoni, IA- After forty-six runs were scored between the two teams on Friday afternoon at North Park, the dust cleared and the Graceland University baseball team came away with two big victories versus the likes of MidAmerica Nazarene University. GU opened with a 10-9 victory followed up by a memorable 14-13 thriller in the bottom of the seventh.

With the sweep of MNU, the Jackets first HAAC sweep of the season, the Blue and Gold improve to 19-23 on the season with a 7-16 mark in the Heart of America standings.

Game One

Graceland didn’t waste any time getting the scoring started on Friday afternoon in front of a solid crowd on a beautiful spring day at Lamoni’s North Park. The Jackets tallied two runs in the opening inning and would follow with two more in the second frame. After MNU would creep back into contention, the Jackets exploded for a five-run sixth inning to cap their scoring.

Chris Hayes, a sophomore right-hander out of Oakville, Ontario, opened on the hill for head coach Brady McKillip. Hayes scattered 11 hits in his five innings of work with three strikeouts. Max Escrogin, a hard-throwing Dominican Republic native, tallied the game one win by pitching the final two innings on the rubber.

A senior laden club, GU was led by the steady play of their elder statesmen who also fill the middle of their batting order. Aaron Fuller, GU’s versatile and savvy second-baseman put together a 2-4 performance in game one including a double. Third-baseman and the recent all-time hits record holder at Graceland, Tyler Moe, continued to swing a hot bat by notching a 3-4 opening game while also chipping in a double. Finally, Matt Calcagni, another GU record-breaker, mirrored Moe’s performance with a 3-4 showing himself including a double.

Game Two

The casual fan who enjoys a baseball game with high-octane offense and clutch hitting moments would certainly appreciate the double-header on Friday between the Jackets and Pioneers. After an exciting opener which featured a torrid comeback by the Pioneers that almost overcame the Jackets, game two featured not one, but two amazing comebacks including a five-run inning by the Yellowjackets in their final at-bat to take the sweep.

Unfortunately for GU left-hander Tyler Wright, his solid outing was nearly wasted when the GU bullpen surrendered a seven-run lead in the seventh inning to see MNU take a temporary 13-9 advantage.

With the team understandably in shock after such an astonishing comeback by the Pioneers, the GU offense didn’t stay quiet as they rallied for a five-run inning of their own and eventually won the game on an RBI-single by senior Adrian Kerr.

Wright once again threw well for the Jackets as he worked the first 6 1/3 innings before working himself into trouble in the seventh and handing the ball over to senior right-hander Kyle Palmer. Wright allowed three walks and six hits while also striking out three Pioneer batters. Palmer unfortunately didn’t fare as well against MNU as he allowed 9 earned runs before being relieved by Escrogin.

Escrogin was greeted by a first-pitch two-run homerun to extend the MNU lead to 13-9 before retiring the final hitter on a fly-out to center. Faced with a tough situation, the GU offense responded by simply chipping away at the four-run lead and worked their way back into a winnable contest.

Once again leaving things up to the senior class, they responded with their bats. After Moe delivered a run-scoring single, Calcagni stepped in and punched a single through the left-side enabling the tying-run to come around and touch home. After a hard-fought battle with the MNU hurler, Kerr delivered with a game-winning, walk-off single that plated Moe and sent the Yellowjacket bench into a frenzy.

Moe, Calcagni, Kerr, and fellow senior Rudy Vallejos all collected three hits in game two including Moe’s 25th career homerun making him the all-time career leader in round-trippers in GU history. Henry Duke, Victor Tso, and Angel Suarez, all important players to the future of GU baseball, each tallied two hits apiece while Fuller scored three runs in the victory.

By completing the final out in the seventh, Escrogin was awarded his second victory of the day and improves to 3-1 on the season.


For More Information on Graceland University Athletics Contact:
Michael Brown, Sports Information Director
(641) 784-5318
mibrown@graceland.edu