Red Devils sweep Oklahoma Wesleyan

Allen Community College piled up baserunners aplenty in their home-opener Monday, scoring just enough to secure a 7-4 win over visiting Oklahoma Wesleyan.
The baserunners were a bit harder to come by in the second game — the Red Devils had only three hits — but Allen rode the hot pitching of Derek Pike to a 3-1 win.
The sweep lifts ACC to 3-4 on the season. The Red Devils head to Overland Park Thursday for a doubleheader at Johnson County before hosting JCCC on Saturday.
Allen stranded nine baserunners and had two others gunned down at third and home, respectively, allowing the Eagles to stay in the thick of things until the end.
“They threw a couple of pretty good pitchers against us,” Allen head coach Val McLean said.
Garrett Ayala, the Eagles’ starter in the opener, was able to keep Allen’s hitters off balance, McLean noted.
“He’s a crafty lefty and he was able to hit his spots.”
Three walks and an error even gave Oklahoma Wesleyan a brief 3-0 lead before Allen tied the score in the bottom of the first.
Trey Francis’ sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth scored Austin Griffin to break a 4-4 deadlock.
Griffin and Jacob Waters tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. Griffin’s sac fly scored Cole Slusser before Waters doubled to drive in Chase Egelston.
“It was good to finally get those key hits,” McLean said.
Starting pitcher Trevor Kreifel bounced back after a rocky first inning, in which three walks and an error helped Oklahoma Wesleyan take a 3-0 lead.
Kreifel shut down the Eagles from there, limiting Oklahoma Wesleyan to three hits over six innings and two earned runs. He struck out four and walked four.
Francis came on in the seventh and pitched around a one-out single for the save.
Allen responded immediately after falling behind early.
Levi Ashmore reached on an infield single and scored on Kyle Foster’s one-out double. Griffin doubled to knock in Foster. He scored when Waters singled to center to tie the score at 3-3.
Ryan Winter pushed ACC in front in the bottom of the third with a sacrifice fly to score Foster.
Griffin and Foster accounted for four of Allen’s five extra-base hits, with two doubles apiece. Waters also had a double. Ashmore singled twice, as did Sean Maruo and Slusser.

IT WAS PIKE’S turn to frustrate the Eagles, who had runners in scoring position in each of the first four innings, but went scoreless in each.
Meanwhile, Ashmore’s two-out walk in the bottom of the third was followed by a run-scoring error by the Oklahoma Wesleyan rightfielder. Kreifel’s single scored Slusser for the second run.
Ashmore’s sac fly scored Egelston in the bottom of the fourth for the final run.
Two ACC errors led to Oklahoma Wesleyan’s only run of the contest in the top of the sixth, but Pike induced the Eagles’ Jalen Jackson to fly out to left to end the threat.
“Our pitchers did a nice job today,” McLean said, “and our hitters are starting to come around.”
Francis picked up his second save of the day with a perfect seventh inning. He struck out two. Pike scattered eight hits with six strikeouts to get the win.
Ashmore, who has 9 hits in his last 17 at bats, had a double. Clint Heffern and Kreifel had singles.