ASHLAND, Mo. – Missouri Baptist Baseball topped William Woods in both games of Friday's doubleheader, earning their first two AMC wins of 2019. The series was relocated to Ashland, Mo. due to poor field conditions in Fulton.
In the first game of the day, the Spartans used a four-run fourth inning and a dominant pitching performance to secure a 5-0 victory.
After being shut down by Owls' starter Quincy Jones in the first three innings, the offense came to life in the top of the fourth.
Drew Brooks led off with a single and came all the way around to score on a double by
DeShawn Lookout. Lookout would later touch home on a single by
Caleb Dean.
Still with only one out in the inning,
Anthony Enwiya followed with his first of two impactful hits on the day. The senior's line drive up the middle drove home Dean and
Mason Washington to make it 4-0.
The offensive surge was more than enough support for starting pitcher
Austin Worrell. The redshirt freshman spun five scoreless innings, allowing just two hits.
Matt Huss took over in the sixth and had no issue closing out the final two frames.
Game two saw another solid pitching performance, this time by left hander
Josh Ray. The junior from Imperial, Mo. conceded three hits and no runs in five innings while striking out nine.
After 84 pitches, Ray departed with a 2-0 lead and William Woods responded by finally touching up the MBU bullpen. An RBI single in the sixth by Quincy Jones and a two-run double in the seventh by Connor Poulson gave the Owls their first lead of the day at 3-2.
On the other side, the Spartans had their hands full with WWU starter Taran Oulton through the first eight innings. The Alberta, Canada native was looking for the complete game when he went back out for the ninth inning protecting a one-run lead.
After inducing a groundout to start the inning,
Caleb Dean drew a hard-fought walk. Oulton was then able to retire Dominique Hernandez, bringing in
Anthony Enwiya in as the Spartans' final hope. On a 1-1 count, the MBU catcher launched his second home run of the season to left field to return the lead to the visitors.
Manny Pizarro came on for the bottom half of the inning and needed just six pitches to retire the Owls in order. The Spartans improved to 9-5 overall and 2-3 in AMC play.
"Pretty incredible," remarked MBU Head Coach
Eddie Uschold. "We weren't able to do much offensively all game. But
Caleb Dean put together a great at bat and Oulton made a mistake on Enwiya. Anthony made him pay. Pizarro was great in the ninth. Great win."
The Spartans will go for the sweep on Saturday in game three. First pitch is scheduled for 1 pm.
