[Baseball] Baseball Falcons best No. 11 Eagles in pitcher's duel

WICHITA, Kan. – The Friends University Falcons came out on the high end of a 3-1 pitcher's duel over the No. 11-ranked Oklahoma Wesleyan University Eagles in KCAC action today (Mar. 21) at West Side Athletic Field.

The win is the Falcons fourth overall and moves them to the .500 mark at 13-13 overall and 7-5 in conference action.

At the center of the Falcon victory was the stellar starting performance by Spencer Davidson (SO/Delphos, Kan), who went six innings and gave up just one run on three hits. 

Supplementing Davidson's effort was the bullpen trio of Keagan Alejo (SO/Waco, Texas), Matt Postier (SO/Wichita, Kan.) and Vincent Vigil (FR/Tampa, Fla. ). Alejo and Postier took care of the seventh and eighth innings, with Vigil coming on to toss a scoreless ninth to pick up his fifth save of the season.

"Spencer was fantastic for six innings," said Friends baseball head coach Adam Neisius. "Keagan, Matt, and Vincent picked up where they left off from the weekend at Saint Mary and finished up the final nine outs."

After Josh Logan snapped a scoreless tie with an RBI double in the third to put OKWU on top, the final three runs belonged to the Falcons.

The sixth inning was the Falcons' breakout frame, with a sacrifice fly by Niquan Benjamin (SO/US Virgin Islands) scoring Buster Hardman (JR/American Fork, Utah) to tie the game.

The Falcons weren't done as Devon Lujan (SO/Olathe, Kan.) doubled with two out and scored the go-ahead tally on a single by Oliver Dunn (SO/Endeavour Hills, Australia).

A similar sequence resulted in a valuable insurance run for the Falcons in the seventh when Zeke Henson (SO/Raymore, Mo. ) doubled and was driven in on an RBI single from Caleb Coats (SO/Katy, Texas).

"We barreled some baseballs early that were right at defenders," said Neisius. "Hitters kept grinding and those barrels eventually got down for hits. We played a great game defensively to get a big mid-week conference win."

The Falcons (13-13, 7-5 KCAC) outhit the Eagles 9-5, led by two hits apiece from Dunn and Henson.

Logan went 3-of-4 at the plate to pace the Eagles (21-7, 8-4 KCAC), while starting pitcher Matthew Atencio lasted 6.1 innings and allowed three runs.

Friends will remain at home and host a three-game series with Ottawa University starting with a single game Friday afternoon (Mar. 24) at 3 pm.