Wednesday’s college baseball doubleheader pitting host Temple against Weatherford at Danny Scott Sports Complex seemed to have just about everything.
Well, except the sweep that TC coach Craig McMurtry and his Leopards wanted.
Will Sandifer’s bases-loaded, two-out single in the bottom of the seventh inning gave Temple a 2-1 win in the first game, but Weatherford went ahead with four eighth-inning runs - aided by two errors - and narrowly held off the Leopards’ rally to win 9-8 in the finale and keep the Coyotes in second place in conference play.
“Those were good games, close games,” said McMurtry, whose team’s Game 2 loss snapped its eight-game winning streak and moved the Leopards to 24-19 overall and 12-10 in the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference. “As a coach it’s not much fun, because it’s close and every pitch and play matters.
“The second game was frustrating because we had a real chance to win it,” he added. “You understand that you don’t get that many opportunities to get a sweep, and we had that opportunity in the second game.”
After Temple’s Game 1 win tied the teams for second in the NTJCAC, Weatherford (30-12, 13-9) regained sole possession of it in the finale. They will complete their four-game series with a doubleheader at 3 p.m. Saturday in Weatherford, with Tristan Gaines and Paul Spinn scheduled to be TC’s starting pitchers.
Whereas the nine-inning second game featured wild twists and turns, the seven-inning opener was a tight, well-played duel highlighted by errorless defense.
After Temple sophomore left-hander Daniel Meadows stranded two runners in scoring position in the top of the first, the Leopards gave him a 1-0 lead in the second.
Nick Anders drew a one-out walk against righty Khris Tate, raced to third on Tabor Smith’s single to left field and scored on Pedro Maldonado’s single to right.
Weatherford’s offense was without the potent bat of sophomore outfielder Steven Sultzbaugh, a Rice signee who’s hitting .514 with 61 runs batted in but will miss the rest of the season because of a wrist injury.
The Coyotes finally got to Meadows in the fifth, as Trey Crain singled before Travis Beaird hit a hard shot up the middle that Meadows reached out to deflect with his bare hand. Although Meadows wasn’t seriously injured on the infield single, his left hand was affected enough by the liner that McMurtry summoned Hunter Scott from the bullpen.
After a sacrifice bunt, Jeff Taliaferro’s groundout drove in Crain for a 1-1 tie.
Crain ripped a shot down the left-field line to start the seventh but lost his footing as he took a hard turn, and Anders’ relay throw from Payton Wisener cut down Crain at first for a key out.
Anders led off TC’s seventh with a single to right, went to second on Smith’s bunt and stopped at third on Maldonado’s single to right.
Tate struck out Travis Trial for the second out but hit Wisener to load the bases for leadoff man Sandifer, whose sharp liner to center cut through the blowing-in wind and sailed over a leaping Garrett Smith to drive in Anders for the 2-1 victory.
“Will kind of runs hot and cold and sometimes he takes some real ugly swings, but he got the big hit when we needed it,” McMurtry said.
The Coyotes responded in Game 2 by getting off to a strong start against TC starter Courtney Behrend. Weatherford used three hits, a walk and a hit batter to grab four runs, with two scoring when right fielder Maldonado misplayed Beaird’s two-out fly ball for a two-run double.
Weatherford righty Jerris Springfield stymied Temple until the fourth, when Anders’ single drove in Mike Lowery and Smith’s grounder plated Michael DeLaRosa to make it 4-2.
With the Coyotes up 5-2 in the sixth, pinch hitter Garrett Bivone blasted a two-run home run to right to slice TC’s deficit to 5-4. The Leopards then tied it at 5 in the seventh against Paul Mantalbano when Sandifer’s single to right drove in Trial.
“The momentum definitely was on our side when we tied it up,” McMurtry said. “It was right where we wanted it. We were down 4-0, and now it’s 5-5.”
However, the Leopards’ momentum didn’t last long.
Joe Weik’s leadoff grounder in the eighth got past shortstop Trial for an error, and Crain doubled for a 6-5 lead before Matt Elliott’s RBI single made it 7-5.
Gaines relieved Zach Butler and allowed a single and a walk, but he had a shot to escape without further damage on Blake Yazel’s grounder to the right side. But after first baseman DeLaRosa ranged to his right to field the ball, his throw got past a covering Gaines and two more runs scored to create a 9-5 lead.
The Leopards charged back in the eighth, using DeLaRosa’s RBI triple, Anders’ RBI single and Smith’s sacrifice fly to make it 9-8 before a double play ended the inning.
Temple had a final shot in the ninth when pinch hitter Chase Cline drew a leadoff walk against Bryan Dixon and Matt Loughrey executed a sacrifice bunt. But Sandifer struck out and Lowery grounded out to second to seal the split.
