This weekend, the Royals traveled to Kansas City, Missouri to take on Conference #1 Kansas Christian College in a 3-game series. After dropping the home series 2-1 against them back in February, the boys were ready to go and ready to get those games back.
Carrying a 5-game win streak into the series,
Blaine Dunstan gave the team a fantastic start to the series on the bump. Dunstan threw 7 innings and allowed 0 runs on just one hit, a leadoff single in the first inning. Josh Nicholson pitched well in relief again, going 2 innings and allowing 1 run on 1 hit with 2 strikeouts.
Offensively, the team picked up right where they left off in Branson. After going through the lineup once, the correct adjustments were made and the team broke through, scoring 2 in the 3rd, 3 in the 4th and 1 in the 5th to take a 6-0 lead. Behind RBIs from
Ethan Delgado (1-2, 3 RBIs, 2 BB),
Jett Warner (1-5, 3 RBIs),
Ray Jaramillo (3-5, 1 RBI, 1 R) and
Adrian Vivo (2-4, 1 RBI, 2 R), the team took a 10-0 lead into the bottom of the 9th to go on to win 10-1 in dominant fashion.
On Saturday, the Royals started Game 2 slow and fell behind 6-1 going into the top of the 6th inning. After Jaramillo singled to bring in a run followed by a walk drawn by
Adrian Vivo to load the bases, Catcher
Tucker Bradley stepped into the box. KCC's reliever Jose Ballista threw Bradley a 1-1 slider that he would not get back. Bradley blasted it high and deep to left field for a grand slam to tie the game at 6-6 in the 6th inning of the first 7-inning game of the day.
KJ Merriweather singled in the next at-bat and advanced to 3rd on a single up the middle from Delgado.
Jett Warner hit a deep fly ball to right field to score Merriweather on a sac fly as the go-ahead run to take a 7-6 lead. After
Gustavo Soto hit a hard line drive right to the 2nd baseman for the 3rd out, it was time to complete the comeback.
Cole Edwards came into the game for the Royals and had a quick 6th inning, retiring all 3 batters he faced. After a quick top of the 7th, the Royals still led 7-6 going into the last frame. After a leadoff single, Edwards induced back-to-back groundouts to put the tying run at 2nd base with 2 outs. After working a 2-2 count against Parker Graves, Edwards blew a fastball by him for strike three swinging to close the game.
Freshman
Jacob Price got the win pitching 1 inning in the 5th with 0 runs allowed on 2 hits with one strikeout. Edwards got the save, throwing the final 2 innings with 0 runs allowed, 1 hit and 2 strikeouts.
In Game 3, KCC got the lead again in the 2nd inning after an RBI single from Ben Shively and an RBI double from Grant Claycomb. The Royals still never blinked. in the top of the 4th inning,
Diego Canuelas hit an absolute moonshot to deep right center field for a 2-run home run to tie the game. Later in the inning, Delgado hit an RBI single to center field to score
Adrian Vivo and take a 3-2 lead. After adding another run in the 5th from a sac fly by
CJ Price, the Royals led 4-2 going into the bottom of the 6th. Shively hit a 2-out triple to score a run and bring the score to 4-3 before going into the 7th inning.
With
Gabe Reed at 3rd base and 2 outs, KCC decided to intentionally walk
Diego Canuelas for the 2nd time after his home run in the 4th inning.
Adrian Vivo came to the plate and smashed a double that hopped off the wall in left field to score both runners and take a 6-3 lead. After
KJ Merriweather was hit by a pitch, Delgado hit a hard line drive to left field to score Vivo and extend the lead to 7-3.
In the bottom of the 7th,
Ryan Pindell came in to pitch to relieve
Eduardo Soto. After working 2 quick outs, Valenzuela hit a solo home run that just got over the left field wall. Up 7-4 now, Pindell induced a flyout to Merriweather in left field to complete the series sweep. Soto got the win, pitching 6 innings and giving up 3 runs on 7 hits with 1 strikeout.
Now riding an 8 game win streak, the Royals play Champion Christian College in Hot Springs, Arkansas in another 3-game conference series this Thursday and Friday.
