ST. LOUIS – [BOX SCORE GAME 1] [BOX SCORE GAME 2] Missouri Baptist baseball averaged 10 runs on Tuesday over two games as the Spartans swept the final two home games of the 2014 season over Culver-Stockton College 13-4 and 7-3.
Missouri Baptist (39-10, 19-5 AMC) continued to rebound from a rough week with two more dominant wins on Tuesday, all starting with a 13-run game to begin the doubleheader.
Missouri Baptist posted five runs in both the third and the fourth innings to secure the game one victory. The game, however, was in jeopardy early as starter Curtis Sawchuk ran into early trouble. The lefty allowed three runs in the first and one in the second before settling down and tossing a solid game.
Sawchuk went six innings and allowed four runs (two earned) on eight hits with one walk and eight strikeouts. Sawchuk's outing was impressive, as was Ryan Stapp's. The Spartan reliever came in to hangle the ninth, where he pitched to the minimum in the win.
In the game, Josh Fuentes and Dan Harper both went 2-3 with three runs scored. Eli Roundtreee also went 3-4 in the game with two RBI. The 7-9 hitters in the Spartan order, however, did much of the damage. Brent Zimmerman, Jeff Smith and Erik Garcia combined for seven RBI and five hits in the game.
In game two, Missouri Baptist jumped-out to a big lead early to put the pressure on the Wildcats. Trevin Craig singled and scored to lead-off the first inning to give MBU its first lead of the game. Then, with two on and no out, Eli Roundtree crushed a three-run home run high over the right field wall to make the lead 4-0.
Missouri Baptist tacked-on three more runs in the game as Colby Duncan got his second win of the season. Duncan tossed five innings of three-hit baseball in Tuesday's win. Chris Kenney, Ryan McClaran and Michael Murano all combined to finish the game for the Spartans.
Orlando Olivera extended his hitting streak to 15 games in game number one, but had his streak snapped in Tuesday's finale. Olivera went 0-3 in game two.
Fuentes and Roundtree combined for four hits and five RBI in the win.
Missouri Baptist will now head down to Henderson, Tenn., for the final AMC series of the season against Freed-Hardeman University. An combination of two MBU wins or two Lyon losses will allow the Spartans to win the regular-season conference crown and will nail-down the No. 1 seed in the AMC Tournament.
