WICHITA, Kan. – The (RV) Friends University defeated the Bethany College Swedes comfortably 10-3 in the opening game and then came back late for a 4-2 win in the second tilt to complete a weekend sweep today (Mar. 16) at West Side Athletic Field in Wichita.
The two victories move the Falcons to 21-8 overall and 12-5 in the KCAC while moving head coach Adam Neisius to just one game shy of career win No. 600.
Nijai Armbrister singled home Ryan Sylvester in the third inning to make it 2-0 Falcons in the first game of the day.
Niquan Benjamin then drew a leadoff walk in the fourth, stole second and came home with the Falcons' third run on a single by DJ Killion.
That ignited a three-run inning for Friends, with Buster Hardman plating Killion with a sacrifice fly and Carlos Rodriguez doubling home Caleb Coats for a five-run lead.
Leading 6-2, the Falcons broke the game open in the seventh as consecutive RBI doubles from pinch hitter Tyler Godfrey and Buster Hardman capped a four-run inning. Killion also had a sacrifice fly and Coats singled in Benjamin in the inning that gave the Falcons an insurmountable 10-2 lead.
Hardman had three hits in the opening game win for the Falcons, with Rodriguez, Armbrister and Benjamin each producing two hits.
Francisco Moscoso, the current KCAC Pitcher of the Week, gave another solid pitching performance with just two runs allowed in eight innings along with a career-high tying 11 strikeouts.
Austin Neely pitched the ninth inning to close out the win.
The two teams exchanged solo homers in the nightcap, with a homer from Zeke Henson in the fourth sandwiched around home runs from Rivera in the first and Noel Perez in the fifth that had the Swedes in front 2-1.
The Falcons finally broke through in the sixth, capitalizing on two errors to score the tying run with two outs. RBI singles by Coats and Godfrey followed that and put the Falcons on top for good.
Preston Lewis then came on and retired the Swedes in the seventh to earn his fifth save of the season.
Brett Black gave the Falcons their third quality start of the series, going six innings and striking out a career-high tying eight batters with just two runs allowed.
Henson went 2-of-3 with a pair of runs scored in the second game Falcon victory.
"We got three quality starts on the mound from Jaime, Moscoso and Black this weekend," said Neisius. "I thought all three of them were really good and led the way for our series sweep. We struggled offensively in game three until Henson gave us a spark with a big home run. We've won 11 of our last 12, hopefully we can improve on the things we need to and continue to play well this coming week."
The Falcons will remain at home and host Evangel University Tuesday afternoon (Mar. 19) at 2 pm.
