Baseball Snaps Skid With Dominant Sweep of Southwestern

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Avila baseball (19-24, 15-16 KCAC) broke out of its recent losing streak in a big way on Wednesday afternoon at The Z, scoring a total of 24 runs on 24 hits to cruise past Southwestern (7-31, 7-23 KCAC) in a pair of lopsided wins.

The Eagles exacted some revenge on the Moundbuilders, currently seated in last place in the KCAC standings, who defeated the Eagles 5-2 last week in Winfield in the series opener. Fast forward one week and one day, and it was a completely different story. Avila scored the first 11 runs of game one in an eventual run-rule win, and though the Builders kept things close through two innings in game two, Avila then scored 10 runs in a row to race to another emphatic result.

The pair of wins snaps an eight-game losing streak for the Eagles dating back to the series finale against McPherson on March 30, Avila's most recent home game. The wins also came at a clutch time for an Eagle squad that has seen its hold on a potential inaugural trip to the KCAC Tournament begin to slip away. With one final series against Kansas Wesleyan looming next weekend, these two wins against a cellar-dwelling Southwestern squad will firm up the Eagles' candidacy for a spot in the KCAC's top eight.

After finding themselves in a real battle against Southwestern last week in Winfield, Avila truly dominated nearly from the jump this week in south KC. Zach Dillman kicked off what would become a brilliant day for the red-hot right fielder with an RBI single in the first inning, and the Eagles never looked back.

Avila plated four runs in the third inning thanks to RBI hits from Rusten Traxler and Tyler King, knocking Southwestern starter Micah Cleveland from the game. The Eagles then got a two-run double from Landon Vahle in the fifth as the kickstarter for a five-run frame to go up 10-0, and Dillman added in another RBI knock in the sixth to force in some insurance.

Southwestern finally got on the board with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning from Luca Dincola, who delivered the clutch go-ahead home run in SC's victory a week ago. This time, however, that was the only run the Builders would score against a locked in Cashen Schranz, who tossed the best outing by an Eagle in the month of April in a welcome return to form from the Eagles' preseason ace.

Schranz threw seven excellent innings, and came within a couple of batters of his second complete-game shutout of the season. Still, he allowed only one run on four hits with two walks and three punchouts to earn his third victory of the season. Thanks to the KCAC mercy rule, it was also the second complete-game victory for Schranz this season, with Avila wrapping up an 11-1 win in seven innings in the second game of the midweek series.

Another critical byproduct of Schranz's excellent outing was that gave Matt Carpenter and the Eagles the freedom to use the rest of their top pitchers as freely as they needed. All of Avila's top arms got an extra day of rest when this doubleheader was shifted from Tuesday to Wednesday, and with no conference games scheduled for the rest of the week, and only one pitcher used in game one, Avila was more than happy to use three of the handful of arms they had reserved for this game to improve their chances of winning.

And the Eagle offense quickly skyrocketed those chances of winning. Southwestern's offense came to play early in the series finale: SC scored in the top of the first, Avila countered with three in the bottom, but then Southwestern scored two more in the top of the second thanks to a two-run single from leadoff hitter London Penland, chasing Eagle starter Logan Empson.

The game was once again tied, 3-3. But it didn't stay tied for long. Ricky Dober broke things open with a two-run double in the bottom of the second scoring Bryce Culp and Robby Cable, and Dillman followed with a double scoring Dober, knocking Jaxon Burns, who was a critical part of the Builders' victory a week ago, out of the game in the second inning.

And the Eagles weren't done. In the third inning, both Gio Armas and Dober plated two runs each thanks to ground-rule double, and Vahle followed by placing a two-run triple inside the left field line before scoring on a passed ball to put the Eagles on top by ten.

Meanwhile, Alex Walton was lights out again for Avila, tossing 3.1 innings of two-hit, scoreless relief to earn his team best sixth win of the season. Corbin Hamman followed and threw the final two innings, allowing only a consolation solo homer to Cooper Reeves in the final frame of a seven-inning game that Avila won handily, 13-4. The Eagles won the season series over the Moundbuilders with their first two victories in the month of April.

Interestingly, the Eagles scored 11 runs on 13 hits in game one and then 13 runs on 11 hits in game two, and plenty of different players played critical roles. Dober was front and center, going 6-for-7 on the day with three doubles and 5 RBI. He's now recorded three straight three-hit games. Dillman also drove in five runs with three hits and three walks; Vahle drove in four and scored another four.

Up next for Avila baseball is a unique home-and-home series with local foes Baker this weekend. The two teams will first face off at 5 PM on Friday night in Baldwin City, and then will meet at 1 PM on Saturday at The Z. Saturday will also be Senior Day and Alumni Day at The Z, so stay tuned to avilaathletics.com and our social media channels for further details about this weekend's festivities.