The Southwestern baseball team jumped to an early 2-0 lead by the second inning against NAIA member Texas Wesleyan University at LaGrave Field in Fort Worth Tuesday afternoon. The Pirates went of the offensive early with a 2 out rally started off by junior Kyle Belski drawing a walk and moving to second on a wild pitch. Senior right fielder John Wooten drove Belski in with a single to center field. A walk by junior catcher Nick Ashford and a sharp single to left by Nate Shipp loaded the bases in the top of the 1st, but the Pirates were unable to capitalize. The second inning was more of the same. A 2 out single by senior center fielder Todd Boone and a walk by junior 3rd baseman Chris Lowry set up Kyle Belski for the RBI single to center field. This was all the offense the Pirates could produce for the day after knocking out the Wesleyan starter after the second inning. The Pirates were able to produce offence, just not runs, leaving 14 on base.

Junior pitcher Chris Churchwell did well in his first start of the year. Churchwell went 4 innings and had 3 strikeouts. A steady mix of changeups and pinpoint locations kept the Ram batters off balance for most of the afternoon. The bottom of the 5th was led off by two base hits off of drag bunts for the Rams. A walk to the next batter, his only of the day, ended Churchwell’s day with the bases loaded. Sophomore Chris Webber came in to try to pull the Pirates out of the mess. However, after a wild pitch plated the first Ram run to pull the game to 2-1, the Wesleyan DH sent the Webber offering over the wall in left field for a 3-run home run to send the game to 4-2. Webber found his groove after the one batter mishap and settled down to go 3 innings giving up just 2 hits and striking out 2. Sophomore reliever Matt Stuart took over for the bottom of the 8th and gave up one hit and one walk. The final Ram run came on a well executed 1st and 3rd double steal in which the Pirates were able to make the 3rd out of the inning but not before Wesleyan scored their 5th and final run of the game.

John Wooten and Nate Shipp each has 2 hits for the Pirates while first year catcher Johnny Gavrel and junior DH Patrick Keenan each managed to record a hit in their second straight game. The Pirates will host a 3 game series with the Concordia Tornados in Georgetown this weekend. Saturday will be a double header starting a 12 while Sunday will be a Single game starting at 12.