SAUGET, Ill. – It has been nearly three weeks since the Missouri Baptist baseball team has taken the field. On a cold, crisp Thursday night, the Spartans made it back to the diamond and put together a seven-run sixth inning on the way to a 10-3 victory against Lindenwood-Belleville.
Missouri Baptist (4-4) returned to the field without its signature power on the chilly evening in the early innings, but the Spartan pitching looked impressive. In an attempt to get his arms ready for the weekend, MBU Head Coach Eddie Uschold brought a veritable carousel of pitchers into the game. The move paid dividends as the team did not allow a hit until the 4th inning.
After Curtis Sawchuck allowed just one walk and no hits in the first, Chris Cordova entered the game in the second and was outstanding. The sophomore struck out the side in impressive fashion and returned to the mound for the third.
After getting Lynx catcher Ryan Siebert and center fielder Zach Fortner to hit into outs, LU second baseman Kyle Forsythe hit a laser to the hole at short. Patrick Johnson made a diving play to his right, but could not quite get Forsythe at first. This was the first base hit of the game for the Lynx. MBU finished the inning as Spartan catcher Garrett Vail gunned-down Forsythe in an attempted steal.
In the MBU half of the fourth, the Spartans put their first run on the board. Slugger Ryan Gunhouse led-off in the inning and tagged a single and advanced to second on a Kyle Turner groundout. Gunhouse then stole third making it one on and one out with Garrett Yost coming to the plate Pier Olivier-Dostaler, also reached on a walk to load the bases as Jo Jo Taylor walked to the plate. The Spartan third baseman delivered a two-run single to shallow center to put Missouri Baptist back on top 3-2.
The wheel of pitchers continued to turn for Missouri Baptist as Paul Hrvol pitched a scoreless fifth inning to hold the lead for MBU.
The Spartans added to its lead in the sixth. Ricky Pagan started the scoring with an RBI double and the Spartans were off to the races. Olivier-Dostaler drove in Pagan on a fielder's choice to short and Taylor drilled a ball to straight-away center over the head of the Lynx center fielder to make it a 6-2 MBU lead.
Two passed balls later, Missouri Baptist took an 8-2 lead and never looked back. With the win, Missouri Baptist moved back to .500 just in time for conference play to begin. The Spartans will play next on Friday at 1:00 p.m. against conference opponent, Williams Baptist College in the first home game of the season for MBU.
