Box Score ST. LOUIS – [Box Score] The Missouri Baptist baseball team rallied around a solid performance from starting pitcher Ryan Stapp to earn a 2-1 victory over Benedictine-Springfield.
The senior from Bakersfield, Calif. tossed 7.0 innings to improve to 7-1 on the season. He gave up just one unearned run, while scattering five hits. The righty struck out seven batters and walked just two.
Carl Jameson diced-up three of the four batters he faced in the eighth inning, while Marcus Crescentini earned the save by striking out three batters in the ninth inning.
Missouri Baptist (37-10) poked just nine hits in the contest, from nine different players. Orlando Olivera, Brian Poupore, and Aaron Collazo stroked doubles in the game, while Olivera and Tim Cusick tallied the two RBI.
Benedictine-Springfield recorded the only two hits of the game over the first three complete innings, but Stapp kept the Bulldogs off the board.
The Spartans scratched a run across the plate in the top of the fourth. Olivera reached on a one-out walk and moved to second on Aaron Pangilinan's infield single. Cusick followed with a two-out single to shallow right field, which plated Olivera. The Spartans led 1-0 after 3 ½.
Missouri Baptist threatened in the top of the 5th, as Austyn Nagamine singled to lead off the inning and Collazo doubled to deep left. After the Bulldogs recorded the first out of the inning, Brent Zimmerman loaded the bases with a walk. Olivera and Roundtree were retired, which left the bases loaded.
In the bottom of the 6th inning, the Bulldogs used two hits and one MBU error to tie the game, but Stapp limited the damage to just a single run.
The Spartans answered with the go-ahead run on three hits in the top of the 7th inning. Jeff Smith reached on an infield single with one out. He promptly swiped second base, but would be caught stealing third after Zimmerman reached on a single to third base. Olivera came through in the clutch with a double to left, which scored Zimmerman. The Spartans led 2-1 after 6 ½.
Benedictine-Springfield could not create any drama in the eighth inning, thanks to Carl Jameson. The senior reliever struck out three batters and walked one.
Senior Marcus Crescentini closed the door in the bottom of the ninth. After striking out the first batter, he walked and hit the next two batters. As the winning run stood on first base, Crescentini diced-up the final two batters to preserve the 2-1 victory. He is now tied for 5th with 10 saves on the season.
Missouri Baptist will take-on Freed-Hardeman on Friday at 5pm. FHU, the top seed in the AMC tournament, defeated the Spartans twice during the regular season.
