WICHITA, Kan. – With no hits through 7 2/3 innings, things appeared it would go in the wrong direction for the Friends University Falcons in their 2025 home opener today (Feb. 7) vs. the Northwestern (Iowa) College Raiders at West Side Athletic Field. But Bryson Rigsby hit what seemed like an innocent single up the middle with two outs in the eighth.
From that point, the Falcons' bats came alive with four runs in the ninth to tie the score before Zeke Henson singled in Melwin Perez for the winning tally in the 10th for a dramatic 5-4 victory.
After putting only two runners on base through the first eight frames, the Falcons immediately put the first two runners on in the ninth with walks to Perez and Carlos Rodriguez.
Miles Hartman then singled home Perez for the Falcons' first run. Nijai Armbrister followed with an RBI single that plated pinch runner Ryan Sylvester and Isaias Urriola then delivered a game-tying two-run single.
The 10th inning began much like the ninth, with Perez and Rodriguez each drawing lead off walks to set the stage for Henson's heroics.
"We were not very good through seven innings offensively, but we got a couple breaks that gave us a chance," said Friends baseball head coach Adam Neisius. "We need to be better at having consistent at-bats from the first pitch. I thought we pitched well enough to win, we have to stop giving teams free bases and make them earn their way on. Hopefully we can be better tomorrow."
The Raiders scored first on a bases-loaded walk to Drew Dykstra and then got a sacrifice fly from Luke Wroblewski in the seventh. A catcher's unassisted was then called when Cam Shelton singled in two runs in the eighth but was unable to run to first base to give Northwestern a 4-0 lead.
Keagan Alejo started for the Falcons (4-3) but had to leave in the second inning and was charged with one run. Gonzolo Armas relieved Alejo with five strong innings, striking out six with one run allowed. Cameron Chase (two innings) and Matthew Benton (one inning) covered the next three frames before Chance Baker pitched a scoreless 10th inning to be credited with the win.
Dykstra was outstanding on the mound for the Raiders, throwing 7.2 hitless innings until allowing Rigsby's single. He finished with eight strikeouts and walked just one.
Grant Rychnovsky went 3-of-5 with two runs scored for the Raiders (0-1).
The two teams will wrap up the three-game weekend series with a doubleheader tomorrow (Feb. 8) starting at 1 pm.
