The Park University Gilbert baseball team opened a non-conference series with 25^th-ranked OUAZ this evening at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Ariz. The Buccaneers fell to the Spirit 17-11 in a high scoring affair. The Bucs drop to 22-21 on the season with the loss.

The Bucs got off to good start in the first scoring a run on a Gino Caperon single. OUAZ answered back with one of its own in the bottom of the second.

OUAZ then proceeded to open the game up with 15 runs over the next four innings. The Spirit touched up Bucs starter Aiden Guthrey for five runs (four earned) and then reliever Ivri Margolin for eight runs (four earned) as the Bucs committed three errors in the four innings.

The Bucs got their bats going in the sixth as they put five runs on the board as Jesh Leckey, Shane Erickson, Issac Echiveste, Brendan Blakeman and Caleb Rozier each had RBI.

Park would add five more runs in the eighth, as Caperon added two more RBI and three other runs would score via throwing errors and a wild pitch by OUAZ.

Four players had multi-hit games for the Bucs as they posted 12 hits, Caperon had three RBI to lead the team.

These two teams will meet again tomorrow evening at Surprise Stadium at 6 p.m. before the series finale at Tempe Diablo Field 3 on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Saturday game is senior day as the Bucs will honor 13 players and their contributions to Buccaneer baseball.