ST. LOUIS—MBU Baseball (14-9, 7-3 AMC) picked up two big wins at home over Lyon College (10-14, 5-5 AMC) on Friday afternoon. The Spartans took sole possession of second place in the conference and extended their winning streak to a season-high five games.
GAME ONE
The series opener was a pitcher's duel between aces
Masen Palmier for MBU and Lex Meinderts for Lyon. With the wind blowing in on a chilly afternoon, offense was hard to come by.
Lyon was able to put the first runs of the day across in the top of the first. A double to the gap by Joe Weatherford scored Alan West from second base. Palmier would settle in to strike out the next hitter and strand a runner in scoring position.
The Spartans had opportunities but couldn't cash in against Meinderts. They left the bases loaded in the second, stranded a runner in the third, and hit into an inning-ending double play in the fifth.
But the Lyon starter finally flew too close to the sun in the sixth. An error, a single, and a walk loaded the bases with no outs. Meinderts battled back to strike out both
Carter Mize and
Noah Hemphill bringing
Hunter Hill to the plate. On a 1-0 count to Hill, Meinderts hesitated in his windup and the umpires called a balk. The Spartans were gifted the tying run as Hill went on to draw a walk and
Luis Tajia struck out to end the inning.
The game took another dramatic twist in the top of the seventh. Two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with two outs. After a conversation on the mound with his starter, Head Coach
Eddie Uschold elected to leave Palmier in to face Alan West – the Scots' leader in average and RBIs. And the Spartan senior came through. West hit a sharp grounder to second that was backhanded by
Hunter Hill and flipped to get the force out at second base.
The momentum had shifted to the home side.
DJ Schmidt led off the bottom of the seventh with a bunt single and moved to second base on a wild pitch. After an intentional walk to
Treyton Steffler and a force out at third base on a bunt attempt by
Manny Garcia,
Kyle O'Brien came to the plate with one out. The winning run was in scoring position. As he's done all season so far, the MBU leader in RBIs added one more. A walkoff single up the middle scored Steffler and gave Mo. Bap a thrilling 2-1 win.
GAME TWO
In the nightcap, it was the Spartans who jumped out to an early lead in the first inning. Steffler led off with a double and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch.
Billy Heil made the start for MBU and, though he ran into some trouble in both the second and fourth innings, the lefty escaped with no damage. In both cases, Heil got Tristan Buschow to ground into inning-ending double plays with the bases loaded.
Lyon would eventually tie the game on a solo home run in the fifth but the Spartans re-claimed the lead immediately in the bottom of the frame. A double by
Manny Garcia into the left field corner scored
DJ Schmidt. A single by
Kyle O'Brien followed to bring in Garcia and Steffler. The three-run inning broke it open for the home side. The Spartans added insurance runs in the seventh and eighth to stretch the advantage to 6-1.
Heil retired the next nine hitters in a row to complete eight innings. The junior allowed five hits, walked two, and struck out five to earn his third win of the season.
Matt Huss pitched the ninth to close it out.
WHAT'S NEXT
The series concludes with another doubleheader on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for noon.
