KINGSPORT, Tenn. – [BOX SCORE] Missouri Baptist baseball trailed for the entirety of Wednesday's game against Cumberland University and received its first loss of the 2014 NAIA National Championship Opening Round, 6-4.
Missouri Baptist (47-13) struggled to get its offense off the ground while the Bulldogs played its second game of the day and seemed at ease with Michael Yarborough on the hill. The Spartan starter went five and two-thirds of an inning and allowed six runs, five of which were earned, with four strikeouts and two walks.
Yarborough never seemed to get on a roll in the game while Bulldog starter Clint Meadows was rock solid. Meadows tossed all nine innings and allowed four runs, just two of which were earned, in the complete-game win on Wednesday.
Cumberland jumped all over the Spartans in the first thanks to back-to-back singles by Chris Hall and Ricky Coleman. The top two batters in the Bulldog order started things off right as Hall came around to score on a sacrifice fly later in the inning by Sam Lind.
The Bulldogs put two more across in the second inning, and before the Spartans even realized it, Cumberland led by three.
Missouri Baptist cut into the lead in the top of the third. Orlando Olivera singled with one out to load the bases. After an Eli Roundtree strikeout, Joe Stropp came through with a two-RBI single to make it a 3-2 ball game.
The game remained scoreless until the sixth inning when the Bulldogs broke out for three runs. Brady North singled to lead things off in the inning, but MBU's Yarborough looked to get things back under control with two quick outs. Cumberland, however, pressed through and continued it's offensive success. Richie Seaton doubled home the first run of the inning to extend the lead to 6-4.
Yarborough stayed in the game for one more pitch, a ball in the dirt to catcher Bryan Haney, and was pulled in favor of Colby Duncan.
The Spartan lefty entered and didn't fare much better. Duncan walked Haney on three straight pitches and with two on and two out, surrendered a two-RBI single to Hall, which made it a 6-2 game. Duncan walked the next batter, but got Lind to fly out to right field to end the inning.
Trailing by four, Missouri Baptist put two runs back on the board in the top of the seventh to cut the deficit to two runs. Ryan Clarke reached base on his second walk of the game and Josh Fuentes followed with a free pass of his own to make it first and second with two out.
MBU's Olivera stepped to the plate and delivered a big two-RBI triple to clear the bases and helped the Spartans to make it a 6-4 ball game.
Ryan Stapp came into the game in the bottom of the seventh with a runner already at first and the Bakersfield, Calif., native did his job with the assistance of a big double play.
Stapp hit the first batter he saw, Josciel Veras, but bore down to complete the inning unscathed. Justin Byrd grounded into the 4-6-3 double play while Tyler Anderson followed with a fly out to right field to end the threat for Cumberland.
In the 8th, Stapp also turned a 1-6-3 double play, but did not get any run support as Missouri Baptist took its first loss of the Opening Round.
With the loss, Michael Yarborough was handed the first blemish on his record in 2014, while Josh Fuentes' grounder to third base was ruled an error in the third. The Spartan shortstop failed to pick-up a hit on the day and his hitting streak ended at 17 games.
Orlando Olivera and Trevin Craig both picked-up three hits and led the team on the day.
Missouri Baptist will have one more shot at it on Thursday as they will play the if-necessary game. That contest is scheduled for 11:00 a.m., but with heavy rain in the forecast, there is a chance that the game will be moved back later in the day.
The inclement weather is due to die down beginning in the early evening hours. The NAIA requires that the game is begun by midnight tomorrow. If a game cannot be played, the winner of Wednesday's game, by rule, will advance automatically.
