Saturday Sweep Leads Eagles to Series Win over McPherson

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Avila baseball won their fifth KCAC series of the 2024 season this weekend at The Z, prevailing in a pair of close games on Friday before McPherson (15-21, 11-13 KCAC) recovered to win on Saturday and avoid a three-game sweep. With the two wins, the Eagles (17-17, 13-9 KCAC) have now won 13 games in conference play, the most they have won since they've been part of the KCAC, and are now .500 overall as March comes to a close.

It's truly been an impressive and exciting season so far for Matt Carpenter's experienced but hungry flock of Eagles. Since Avila joined the KCAC ahead of the 2019 season, the Eagles have never won double-digit games in league play or qualified for the postseason – now, with a month left in the regular season, Avila has already won their most conference games since 2018, and the Eagles hold firm to fifth place in the KCAC standings, two games ahead of Ottawa, with only a handful of series still to play.

In a true rebuilding year for McPherson baseball, usually one of the stronger programs in the KCAC, the Bulldog offense has certainly been their calling card, and that was true this weekend for sure: the Bulldogs actually outscored the Eagles by two over the three games thanks to a late explosion on Saturday, but Avila was able to outslug McPherson in both games Friday to lock up the series win on day one. Carpenter and the Eagles planned to go all-in on day one, using as many of their top pitchers as necessary, to try to secure a pair of wins and then attack Saturday with whatever arms were left – and that strategy worked out perfectly, and delivered the Eagles the two Friday victories they were looking for.

With the wind swirling all weekend in south Kansas City, no pitcher or outfielder had an easy time of it, and both teams scored more than two dozen runs in a true slugfest of a series. Avila's offense arrived in a big way early in Friday's series opener – the Eagles scored five runs in the third and four more in the fourth to set the tone, and though the Bulldogs made things interesting late, Avila's lead was far too large for McPherson to overcome.

Paxton Andrade drove in the first of many runs on the weekend with a bases-loaded walk before JJ Stubblefield stepped up and smacked his first career home run, a grand slam, to left, to chase Bulldog starter Jameson Caro in the third inning and put Avila up 5-0. McPherson got one run back in the fourth, but Avila was far from done: both Landon Vahle and Zach Dillman homered in the home half, giving the Eagles a 9-1 lead that proved to be more than enough.

The Bulldogs certainly made things interesting, scoring six of the final eight runs of the game to get back within striking distance. Jorge Olivo's two-run homer in the sixth made it 9-4, but Dillman provided some crucial insurance with a two-run knock in the home half, scoring Bryce Culp and Diego Solis, to put the Eagles up 11-4. McPherson scratched across three runs over the last couple of innings, but that wasn't enough to threaten Avila in an 11-7 win for the Eagles to open the series.

Friday's second game looked ticketed to be a pitcher's duel with Ethan Alexander and Alex Walton, both team's top pitchers to this point in the season, on the mound, but the offenses had other plans. Avila scored seven runs off Alexander and knocked him out in the second inning, and McPherson scored seven off of Walton and knocked him out in the third, and both teams needed excellent efforts from the bullpen to help smooth things over.

Ricky Dober plated two with a double in the bottom of the first to get the Eagles out to a 3-0 lead immediately, but McPherson brought out the big bats in the second, hitting for the cycle as a team to go up 6-3. Unfazed, the Eagles countered back with four off of Alexander thanks to RBI singles from Vahle, Culp and Dillman, before Collin Evers doubled and scored on a wild pitch in the third to even the score at seven apiece.

After a hectic start to the game, both teams' first guy out of the 'pen completely neutralized their opposing offenses. Carson Cornelius was excellent in relief for McPherson, throwing four scoreless innings with three hits allowed behind Alexander, but Logan Empson was even better in relief for the Eagles, tossing 5.2 innings of relief, allowing only three hits – all singles – with two walks and five strikeouts.

The Eagles knew they would need Empson at some point in the weekend series, but they didn't know when exactly they would employ him. Either way, once Empson came in with one out in the third Friday, he was everything the team needed him to be. Noah Carpenter followed Cornelius with two scoreless innings, and after Empson avoided his only danger spot of the afternoon in the seventh inning, the scheduled 7-inning contest moved into the eighth.

Empson worked around a walk with a pair of punchouts to keep McPherson off the board for the sixth straight inning, giving his team a chance to win it, and that's exactly what they did. With one out, Vahle chopped a single into left field and stole second, and Bryce Culp delivered yet another clutch hit, plopping a single down the left-field line, plating a hustling Vahle, and lifting the Eagles to an 8-7 win and a series victory with an eighth-inning walkoff.

Both teams then returned to The Z for the series finale on Saturday, and both were clearly still ready to rake. Avila was in the driver's seat early, much like in game one, but this time the Bulldogs were able to remain in striking distance – and then they certainly struck late to rally for a win.

Avila went up 3-0 in the first thanks to RBI from Dober and Tyler King and Paxton Andrade delivered two different RBI hits to keep the Eagles ahead in the middle innings, but a solo shot from Kai Torres in the seventh tied it at seven apiece, and a grand slam from Dawson Walters later in the inning put the Bulldogs up for good in an eventual 15-8 win for McPherson as they avoided a potential series sweep.

On the weekend, Dober led the Eagles in hits, RBI and runs scored (five each); Vahle and Andrade each had four hits; Empson and Cashen Schranz earned the victories on Friday; both Jack Dotterer and Robby Cable returned to the lineup after injury-related absences; Kaben Lentzner made his first appearance as an Eagle on Saturday while Jorden Rugg made his second.

Up next, the Eagles have a brief break before they travel out to Hillsboro for a series with another potent offense, the (RV) Tabor Bluejays, next weekend. As of now, the series is scheduled to feature two games on Saturday starting at noon, and one more game on Sunday starting at 1 PM; as always, you can watch all the action live and for free on the KCAC Network.