OSKALOOSA — One swing may have changed everything for the William Penn baseball team.
One pitch away from facing a late-inning deficit and the possibility of having to avoid a four-game series sweep later in the day, Bradley Soto changed the trajectory of the game and the Heart of American Athletic Conference series on Saturday. The Statesmen junior drilled a two-out three-run home run over the fence in right field at the Lacey Sports Complex, giving William Penn a late lead in the third game of a four-game series with Park.
William Penn erased a three-run deficit in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader, riding the momentum from Soto’s home run to a 6-3 win against the Pirates. The Statesmen closed out the day with a 16-5 win in game two, securing a split after dropping 7-6 and 21-6 losses to Park on Friday.
“Before that at-bat, I had a rough moment. I struck out like two times before that, so I had to make my adjustments,” Soto said. “I had help the team. The guys in the dugout just kept telling me to keep it up. The only thing I thought about was staying with the team and try to approach the right side.”
William Penn was able to turn the tables at Park after dropping a heartbreaking series opener. The Statesmen nearly rallied from a four-run deficit, tying the opening game of Friday’s doubleheader at 4-4 on a two-run home run by Abraham Arroyo and loaded the bases in the seventh before Hector Dominguez struck out swinging, allowing Park to escape with the victory.
Park (11-8, 7-5 Heart) carried that momentum into Friday’s nightcap, scoring 11 runs in the top of the third inning on the way to a 15-run victory. Billy Rivera drove in four runs and scored three times for the Pirates, going 3-4 with a home run in the second game of the series.
“All of us were pretty down after Friday,” William Penn head baseball coach Mike Laird said. “Things just kind of got away from us. We really feel like we should have won the first game. We just stranded too many runners. We had the bases loaded three times and couldn’t get anything in. In the second game, it all kind of fell apart on us and it got ugly.”
The Statesmen were struggling to find a response at the plate early on Saturday. Three hits in the opening inning brought in the first run for Park, giving the Pirates a 1-0 lead that would be held into fifth inning in the third game of the series.
Yadiel Santana singled in a run and scored on an RBI single by Rivera in the top of the fifth, giving Park a 3-0 lead in Saturday’s opening game. After being held to just two hits over the first four innings, William Penn finally started to make some noise in the fifth with three hits from the bottom of the order, cutting Park’s lead to 3-1 with two outs.
Down to his final strike, Soto stayed alive by fouling off a pitch from Park starter Bryan Aguirre before sending the next pitch out to right, clearing the fence to give William Penn a sudden 4-3 lead. Three straight hits in the bottom of the sixth helped the Statesmen secure Saturday’s opener, giving William Penn a chance to split the series.
“That was pretty awesome. I would say it was a great moment for me,” Soto said. “As a team, we need to keep doing that. We need to hold each other accountable and just keep bouncing back whenever we’re challenged. It was a good moment for us.”
Soto wasn’t done coming up with big hits for the Statesmen on Saturday. Trailing 3-2 in the third inning of the series finale, Soto sparked a five-run rally with a lead-off home run to right to tie the game before adding a two more hits in the final two innings including triple to center as William Penn scored 11 unanswered runs, building a commanding 13-3 lead.
“Soto is an interesting guy,” Laird said. “He’s got tremendous bat speed. We started him early in the year batting second in the line-up because he is a good athlete and he does have some power. We’ve dropped him down a few times. He’s a little inconsistent. He watches third strikes that kind of infuriates me sometimes, but he’s getting better. He’s a good kid with a lot of natural ability. If he can keep his head still and down, he’s got a chance to put up some really big numbers.”
William Penn (10-10, 3-5 Heart) heads to Missouri Valley for a four-game weekend conference series. Both doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday will begin at 1 p.m.
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