Babson Park, FL – The Webber International baseball team faced off against fellow NAIA squad the Mount Mercy Mustangs in a doubleheader on Friday. The Warriors would dominate the day, winning both games 8-0 and 5-3 and leading the entire day through 18 innings of play.
 
Game one
Brayden Matthews took the hill for the Warriors completing eight innings, only allowing three hits while racking up nine strikeouts. Matthews was masterful on the mound and stabilized the Warriors lead and momentum throughout the entire game and would go on to win his second game of the young 2024 season.  The Warriors offense would be kick started in the bottom of the first inning with RBI singles from Ryan Recio, Bryan Morales, and Richard Rodriguez as the Warriors would jump out to a quick 4-0 lead and never look back. Camren Carroll, batting in the two hole and catching behind the plate, worked himself a 3-5 day at the plate and he caught a base runner stealing in the third.
Byran Morales would help secure the insurance runs in the bottom of the third, hitting his first homer of the season for a two-run shot to push the Warriors to a 6-0 advantage. Joe Becker would bring home the other two runs of the ball game the following inning with a two-run single through the right side.
Behind the excellent performance on the bump from Matthews, great early hitting and a successful relief appearance from Manuel Melian working a scoreless ninth, the Warriors would go on to win game one comfortably 8-0.
Game two
Jonathan Bautista grabbed the game ball for the Warriors in the second game of the day, and pitched five innings, striking out six in route to his third victory of the season. The story of game two lied heavily on the bats of their cleanup and five-hole hitters, Brody Neveker and Ian Kalman. Neveker and Kalman would both rack up RBIs in the first and third innings and Kalman would add on one more in the fifth as they compiled for all of the Warrior runs that came across to score in the second game. Neveker would finish 2-2 with two doubles, a walk and a sac fly which brought home Deven Tedders in the third. Kalman would earn himself a 3-4 day with all three of his singles scoring another run for the Warriors.
The Warriors would be in a battle with the Mustangs for much of this game, although never conceding the lead at any point, Bautista and relief pitcher Danny Rodriguez would face some adversity in several innings in the middle frames, but persevered and held the Mustangs off. The Warriors jumped off to a quick 2-0 lead in the first and never looked back, taking game two 5-3 following a ninth inning save from Seth Lovell for his first save of the season.
 
The Warriors will jump back into action tomorrow afternoon with another scheduled double header against the Mount Mercy Mustangs at 12 and 3 PM to complete their four-game series.
 
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