ST. LOUIS – [BOX SCORE] Sometimes, the importance of a mid-week starter in college baseball is lost, but for Missouri Baptist, Curtis Sawchuk has made it apparent how important those starts can be. The Spartan lefty tossed a complete game, two-hitter to lead Missouri Baptist to a win over Lyon College on Monday evening.
Missouri Baptist (23-4, 8-1 AMC) came into Monday evening's American Midwest Conference game eying its 23rd win of the year. The team hoped to have one more victory before the first NAIA Coaches' Top 25 of the regular season is released on Tuesday. The Spartans turned to Curtis Sawchuk to get the job done and he did just that by posting his first complete-game shutout of the season.
The Spartans came out of the gates looking to take an early lead and thanks to consecutive hits by Josh Fuentes and Orlando Olivera, MBU quickly had two on with one out. An error on Lyon center fielder Kris Kohlstedt after Olivera's hit, however, allowed Fuentes to score to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.
The Spartans picked-up another run in the third inning and three more in the fifth to secure the win.
Olivera led the Spartan offense on the night. The MBU left fielder went 3-5 with one run scored and one RBI. Jeff Smith, Larry Schimsa, Dan Harper and Brent Zimmerman also collected RBI as well.
Errors became a problem for Lyon as the first two Spartan runs that crossed the plate were unearned. The three runs in the fifth, however, were due to strong hitting and patience at the plate. Olivera, Smith and Enrique Pagan all singled to lead things off in the inning.
Larry Schimsa came to the plate looking to take advantage of the bases loaded and collected his RBI with a four-pitch walk. John Almogabar came on in relief and got the next three batters to fly out, but two more runs scored in the process to make it a 5-0 game.
The night, however, belonged to Sawchuk. The British Columbia native recorded 110 total pitches in the game with six strikeouts and two walks in his first complete game of his career.
With the win, Missouri Baptist improved to 23-4 on the season. The team will now get set for a doubleheader against Lyon on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. in Batesville, Ark.
