Baseball Gets Sweep on Opening Day

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 DALLAS, Texas --- The McPherson College baseball team opened the 2017 season with a pair of victories Friday at the Dallas Christian College Round Robin Tournament, topping host Dallas Christian, 9-2, in the opener and Hannibal-LaGrange, 6-2, in game two.

McPherson College 9, Dallas Christian College 2
Dylan Klava (Douglas, Wyo., Colby CC) had four hits and four RBI in the opener against Dallas Christian, falling a triple shy of a cycle. He doubled in the first and third innings, homered in the fifth and capped the day with a single in the sixth.

McPherson took the early lead on Klava's double with one out in the first inning. Another came across courtesy of a Crusader error in the second inning. Two runs followed in both the third and fifth innings before the Bulldogs erupted in the sixth inning. McPherson tallied three runs in the frame powered by singles by Klava and Dylan Fontenot (Lafayette, La., Carencro HS).

Cory Royer (Las Vegas, Nev., Dodge City CC) earned the win for the Bulldogs. He threw five innings, surrendering one run on four hits while striking out six. Two relievers helped McPherson close out the win. Jeromy Denton (Mesa, Ariz., Colby CC) threw a scoreless sixth inning, striking out one. Zack McKay (Orange, Calif., Santa Ana College) came on in the seventh, conceding one run on two hits and a walk.

Tucker Burt took the loss for DCC after giving up five runs (four earned) on seven hits in three innings. He struck out two.

McPherson finished with 11 hits in the game with Klava (four) and Lane Fleming (Council Grove, Kan., Council Grove HS) (two) each recording multiple hits. Fontenot also had two RBI.

Christian Thorpe went 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead Dallas Christian.

McPherson College 6, Hannibal-LaGrange University 2
Hannibal-LaGrange jumped out to an early lead with a run in the top of the second inning on an RBI groundout by Tim Gurnow. 

McPherson responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame, tying the game when Fleming singled off HLGU starter Dan Pearson, scoring a run, while the other run scored when Jackson Goodmiller (St. George, Kan., Rock Creek HS) hit into a fielder's choice.

The Bulldogs added four runs in the fifth inning, scoring on a single by Willow, a double by Fontenot and a triple by Fleming. The Trojans were able to get one run back in the top of the seventh, but it was not enough.

Soren Yarnall (Tustin, Calif., Santa Ana College) earned the win on the mound for McPherson. He went 5 1/3 innings, allowing one run on four hits while striking out five. Klava threw the final 1 2/3 innings, allowing one run on two hits while striking out three. Pearson took the loss for Hannibal-LaGrange. He threw five innings, surrendering six runs on seven hits while striking out a pair.

McPherson collected seven hits led by Fleming and Evan Willow (Victoria, B.C., Canada, Lambrick Park HS) with two hits apiece.

Hannibal-LaGrange finished with six hits, including two each from Antonio Cesin and Joel Reynoso.

"We played solid baseball today and laid our first brick of many going forward," said head coach Bryan Moses. I was proud to see our players have so much energy while they executed in pressure situations. This was a great start to a very long season."

The Bulldogs return to the diamond for two more games Saturday, starting with a second game against the host Crusaders at 12:30 p.m. McPherson wraps the tournament with a 3 p.m. game against Ecclesia College of Arkansas.