SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – [BOX SCORE] Missouri Baptist erased a four-run deficit in the bottom of the seventh on Saturday evening, but left 11 runners on base in an 8-6 loss in the semifinals of the American Midwest Conference Baseball Tournament to William Woods University. With the loss, MBU moves to the losers bracket and will play an elimination game on Monday.
Missouri Baptist (44-11) committed four errors on the day and never seemed to be able to get enough timely hitting outside of the seventh inning.
William Woods struck first blood in the second inning. With one out and a runner at third, a balk was called that allowed Zach Nichols to score and made it a 1-0 game. The balk allowed the Owls the opportunity to plate two runs in the inning and took a quick 2-0 lead.
William Woods strung together three runs on four hits in the third inning and with three consecutive by Sam Moon, Cody Stewart and Matt Thomas. The 1-2-3 hitters in the Owls' order combined to go 6-14 on the day with four runs scored and three RBI.
Missouri Baptist put one on the board in the bottom of the fifth, but ace reliever James Ball shut the door on the Spartans and held them to one run. With everything seemingly going the Owls' way, Missouri Baptist put together a big seventh inning of their own.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Spartans started things up early and put the first two runners aboard on the reliever, Ball.
With two on and no outs, Orlando Olivera lifted a ball into no-man's land in right field to load the bases for Eli Roundtree. The Spartan designated hitter set the stage for a thrilling finish. Roundtree crushed an 0-1 pitch well over the right-center field wall to tie the game at five.
After the thrilling seventh, MBU was unable to finish the job as the Owls' offense was not done. With trusted reliever Carl Jameson on the mound, Missouri Baptist watched as William Woods chipped away at the strong-throwing right-hander, while the Spartans kicked the ball around. Errors charged to Jameson and Jeff Smith helped the Owls to post three on the scoreboard and before it was all said and done, WWU regained a three-run advantage.
Missouri Baptist countered in the bottom of the ninth, but it was not enough. Joe Stropp homered to right-center on the first pitch he saw and made it an 8-6 game with no outs. That, however, was all the Spartans were able to get as the team dropped its first game of the 2014 AMC Tournament.
Missouri Baptist will now drop to the losers bracket of the tournament and will face the winner of the Park University/Freed-Hardeman matchup, which is being played on Saturday evening at 7:00 p.m. That next game will take place on Monday afternoon at 1:00 p.m. at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Ill.
