ST. LOUIS – [GAME 1 BOX] [GAME 2 BOX] Missouri Baptist baseball continued the hit parade on Friday. Missouri Baptist recorded 20 hits over 14 innings in a 5-1 and 12-1 wins aver Indiana Wesleyan. With the wins, Missouri Baptist recorded its first series sweep of 2014.
Missouri Baptist (7-3) recorded its sixth win of the year in a 5-1 victory in game one. Michael Yarborough got the start and was excellent in six solid innings of work. The righty from Pensacola, Fla. recorded his second win of the year after giving up seven hits and one earned run. Carl Jameson entered the game in the seventh and retired the side to ice the win.
The Spartans began the game with two runs in the first and held the Wildcats scoreless until the sixth inning. MBU posted two in the first, one in the fourth and two in the fifth in a five-run outing.
MBU struck first blood in the first with two outs. After Josh Fuentes grounded into a double play, Orlando Olivera doubled and advanced to third on a wild pitch by Wildcat starter Bryan Beachy. Joe Stropp drew the walk and as the speedy Ryan Clarke entered the game as his courtesy runner, Spartan coach Eddie Uschold fired-up the running game.
Clarke took-off for third and as the throw went down to second Olivera took off for home. Both runners made it in safely as Olivera recorded the game's first run with Clarke standing on second.
Ryan Clarke then took off yet again and nabbed third base. On the play, Indiana Wesleyan catcher Phillip Lougheed recorded an error on the throw trying to get the runner at third, and the ball trickled into the outfield to allow Clarke to make it home.
Missouri Baptist got on the board again in the fourth. Pier-Olivier Dostaler hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Enrique Pagan, and made it a 3-0 game.
The Spartans tacked-on two more in the sixth on an RBI double by Joe Stropp and completed the first of two wins.
Scoring came in bunches in the second game of the day. Missouri Baptist hit .444 in the second of the doubleheader and posted a 12-2 win.
Dave Mullins got his second consecutive start and second straight seven-inning victory. The lefty also recorded his second one-hitter this season and allowed just one earned run in the win.
The Spartans started the game down by one as Cameron Screeton scored on an RBI single by Jack Collingsworth Jr. to make it a 1-0 Wildcat lead.
Missouri Baptist event the score in the bottom-half. Dan Harper grounded-out to short, but scored Jeff Smith to tie it at one after one inning.
Indiana Wesleyan took a brief 2-1 lead in the top of the third, but the Spartans took matters into their own hands in the bottom of the third. MBU posted seven runs on six hits and three errors in the inning and quickly made it an 8-2 lead. 12 players batted in the inning and Ryan Clarke reached base twice.
The Wildcats never recovered from the inning as Missouri Baptist went on to post two in the fourth, one in the fifth and one in the sixth to secure the victory.
The Spartans hope to return home on Tuesday as Missouri Valley College is scheduled to make the trip to St. Louis on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. at Spartan Fields.
GAME NOTES
Missouri Baptist has outscored its opponents 72-13 in its last six games (12 runs per game – MBU, 2.16 runs per game - opponents)... In that same span, the Spartans are batting .426 as a team and are holding opponents to a meager .164 from the plate… Missouri Baptist is in the midst of a seven-game win streak… Josh Fuentes has hit safely in the last six games… Ryan Clarke stole seven bases over the course of the Indiana Wesleyan series, six as a courtesy runner… Prior to the weekend, Clarke had just three stolen bases in his first seven games of the year
