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Play by Play The Pioneers kicked off the conference portion of the schedule with a huge road sweep of Evangel on Saturday. Game 1 was a battle of aces as MNU's
Tino Luna (3-0, 2.75 ERA, 14.5 K/9) and Evangel's Blake McKnight (4-0, 1.58 ERA) toed the rubber. Evangel struck first with a solo homer in the 1st inning, but the Pioneers tied it in the 2nd with a 2-out RBI single from
Colin Starr. Back to back RBI doubles by
Josh Greer and
Alex Murrieta put the Pioneers up by 2 before
Dillon Moeller capped off the 3rd inning with another 2-out RBI for a 4-1 lead. Evangel rallied for 2 runs in the 5th to close the gap to 1, then forced extra innings by scoring on a balk in the bottom of the 7th. With 1 out in the top of the 8th,
Ben Alison walked then came around to score on a
Josh Greer double. After a hit batsman to lead off the bottom of the 8th,
Kanon Hoover came in to try to close it out. He was promptly greeted by a 2-base error to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Hoover picked up with defense, however, striking out the next hitter and inducing the following hitter to ground out to 3rd with no advance. Evangel's last hope was quelled when
Kyle Segraves' diving catch in center field ended the threat and gave MNU the 5-4 victory in first game.
Justin Huggins picked up the victory in relief.
Kanon Hoover earned the save. And
Colin Starr (1-3, RBI),
Josh Greer (2-4, R, 2 2B, 2 RBI),
Kevin Liddle (2-2, R), and
Dillon Moeller (1-2, RBI) had the RBIs.
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Play by Play Game 2 was all Pioneers.
Trent Hedlund allowed a homer in the 1st, but
Alex Murrieta tied the game in the second with a homer of his own. Hedlund shut down Evangel the rest of the way, and the Pioneers offense broke out the long ball 3 more times.
Kevin Liddle's first collegiate homer, a 2-run shot, put MNU up 3-1 in the 5th. Then
Ben Alison launched a 3-run shot in the 6th to break the game open. The Pioneers poured it on in the 7th when they loaded the bases with one out. Alison knocked in 1 with a single, and
Josh Greer chased everyone home with a grand slam to put the Pioneers up 11-1. Evangel scored one in the 7th, but the Pioneers completed the sweep with an 11-2 victory.
Trent Hedlund scattered 4 hits in a complete-game victory. And
Ben Alison (2-4, 2 R, HR, 4 RBI),
Josh Greer (2-4, R, HR, 4 RBI),
Alex Murrieta (2-2, R, HR, RBI), and
Kevin Liddle (1-4, R, HR, 2 RBI) homered for the Pioneers.
MNU is 17-5 (2-0 HAAC). The next game is a double header at home vs. Culver-Stockton (6-11, 2-0) on Wednesday at 1:00.
