Wildcats Earn Senior Night Victory with 10-6 Win over Eagles

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. - Playing for the final time at home this season, Baker baseball used three home runs - two of which came off the bat of Eli Young - to power past Avila, 10-6 on Senior Night here Friday at Sauder Field.

Prior to the game, the Wildcats honored seven seniors for their contributions to the Baker baseball program. Those seniors included Preston Drake, Jacob Ewell, Michael Myers, Erich Pouch, Peyton Sparks, Tanner Twillman and Brayden Vawter.

Playing all nine defensive positions in the game, Pouch came in and pitched the ninth for BU and closed out the home win with a couple of strikeouts. Defensively, Pouch had two putouts and three assists and, at the plate, he had a hit in his third at-bat before coming around to score on Twillman's RBI groundout in the bottom of the sixth.

Overall, Baker tallied 14 hits with Drake going 2-for-4 with a walk and two stolen bases, while Myers connected on his first double of the spring. Twillman drove in two runs and Jaidon Bowers had a pair of hits in both of his plate appearances with a double and two runs scored.

Young smacked the first of his two home runs of the night with a two-run bomb in the bottom of the first to give the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead.

After an RBI double from Twillman, Young came back with a three-run shot in his next at-bat in the bottom of the third to push Baker's lead out to a six-run advantage.

Collecting five RBI on the day, Young became the third Wildcat to record multiple home runs in a game, following up Brennan Johnson's pair of homers from Wednesday's victory over Kansas Christian. Jon Jenkins had two home runs in a non-conference game against Clarke back in February.

With the Wildcats leading 7-1, the Eagles strung together a four-run seventh inning to cut their deficit to just two runs.

In the bottom of the seventh, Jaxon Holzem gave BU some breathing room again as he drilled a two-run home run over the fence in left-center to make it a 9-5 lead. Javier Aguirre added an RBI knock in the eighth to cap Baker's double-digit outing.

The Wildcats used a total of six pitchers with starter Kole Starlin tossing three scoreless innings before turning it over to Evan Gottstein, who earned his second win of the season after pitching two innings of relief. Ewell came in and pitched a scoreless eighth inning for BU, tallying a strikeout in the frame.

Closing out a 16-9 record at home, the Wildcats will run it back with the Eagles tomorrow, playing at their place this time with Saturday's single-game action scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch in Kansas City, Mo.

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