Baseball: Falcons defeat Kansas Wesleyan

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U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFNEWS) --  Strong pitching by a trio of freshmen and timely hitting propelled Air Force to a 9-5 win over Kansas Wesleyan in baseball action Feb. 18 here at Falcon Field. 

The Falcons improved to 2-4 on the season and the Coyotes fell to 1-4.

Falcon starter Gary Whiteman (1-1) picked up his first career win with six-plus strong innings of work. Aside from a shaky fourth inning, where he surrendered four runs off of two walks and a hit batter, Whiteman held Kansas Wesleyan scoreless in five of the first six innings. The freshman finished the day with three strikeouts and allowed five runs, four earned, off of six hits.

Air Force jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Karl Bolt tripled into the right field corner to score Geno Salazar for the first run and later came around to score on Matt Alexander's ground out.

After the Coyotes put up four runs in the third to take a 4-2 lead, the Falcons scored four two-out runs in the fourth inning to retake the lead at 6-4. Highlighting the inning was a two-out, two-RBI single up the middle by Jason Griggs, scoring Bolt and Alexander.

With the lead in hand, freshmen Alex Truesdale and David Miller combined to toss three scoreless innings in relief to hold Kansas Wesleyan at bay. Truesdale worked the seventh and eighth and gave way to Miller in the ninth. Miller came in and shut the door on the game by striking out two of the three batters he faced.

Air Force tacked on a run in the sixth and two more in the seventh. The Falcons had 12 hits on the day. Chay Derbigny, Alexander, Griggs and Josh Meents had two base hits each for the Falcons.

Kansas Wesleyan had eight hits in the game. Dusty Romero and Matt Garretson had two hits apiece for the Coyotes.

The Falcons stole four or more bases for the third game in a row. Air Force has stolen 14 bases in 15 tries in its last three games.

Air Force and Kansas Wesleyan will make up the Feb. 17 snow-out game with a doubleheader Feb. 19.

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