FRISCO, Texas – Senior right-hander Will Thompson was brilliant in his season pitching debut for Whitman College, but the Missionaries fell 2-1 to Hardin-Simmons University on Sunday in a non-conference baseball game at Dr. Pepper Ballbark.
Hardin-Simmons scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch in the eighth inning against Whitman's bullpen.
The Missionaries completed their three-day, four-game swing through Texas 1-3. Thompson gave them every opportunity to salvage a weekend split, allowing just one earned run with 11 strikeouts through seven innings.
But the offense, so lively and opportunistic one day earlier, mustered just four base hits. And the defense, error-freeSunday, could merely observe as Hardin-Simmons small-balled the winning run across the plate.
Whitman's eighth-inning demise began when reliever Steven Ainsworth issued a leadoff walk to Caleb Jacques. A sacrifice bunt pushed Jacques to second.
He took third on a wild pitch and scored on another wild pitch.
The Cowboys, a perennial power in the American Southwest Conference who have reached the playoffs in 10 of the last 11 seasons, nicked Thompson for his lone earned run in the fifth inning to take a 1-0 lead.
Whitman, the home team, answered immediately. MacLean Harned shot a single into right field leading off the bottom of the fifth and scampered to second on an error.
During Johnny Chow's ensuing at-bat, Harned ducked into third on a wild pitch. He scored on Chow's sacrifice fly to center field to tie it 1-1.
Adrian Vela was 1 for 3 to pace Whitman at the dish. Harned, Joseph Zimmer and Tristan Cates each went 1 for 4, and Anthony Lim coaxed two walks.
Thompson scattered six hits and walked just two.
Freshman Braden Hussey had another strong performance out of the bullpen. He entered the game in the top of the ninth and pitched around a leadoff single, stranding a baserunner at second to keep Whitman's deficit at one run.
The Missionaries open Northwest Conference play with a three-game set against Willamette University next weekend in Salem, Oregon. The series begins with a doubleheader on Saturday. First pitch in Game 1 is slated for 11 a.m.
Vela (6 for 16, .375), Paul Heywood (6 for 17, .352) and Zimmer (4 for 13, .307) will wield hot bats in Oregon's state capital.
