ST. LOUIS—MBU Baseball (23-12, 16-6 AMC) continued to roll on Thursday afternoon, taking two impressive wins over Central Baptist (22-15, 8-10 AMC) by scores of 15-4 and 11-2. The Spartans are one game out of first behind Columbia and five games ahead of Lyon for second in the AMC. The top two in the final regular season standings receive a bye through day one of the Postseason Tournament.
GAME ONE
The Spartans sent 13 men to the plate in a nine-run second inning. All eight hits in the frame were singles. CBC made two errors to help the cause.
The offense continued to mash in the fourth inning with a one-out two-run homer from reigning AMC Player of the Week
Tommy Patrick Jr. Carter Mize and
Luis Tajia then made it back-to-back-back long balls for MBU. It was 14-1 after four innings.
The Spartans would finish with 15 runs on 17 hits. Mize was 3-3 with three RBIs.
Hunter Hill was 3-4 with two driven in.
Masen Palmier earned his fifth win with five serviceable innings. He conceded three runs and struck out a season-high nine batters.
GAME TWO
It was rinse and repeat in game two as MBU again busted it open in the second inning. A grand slam from
Kyle O'Brien made it 6-0. O'Brien built on a monster 2021 campaign with his 11
th home run and 44
th RBI.
The Spartans scored three in the fourth and two more in the fifth. It was
Treyton Steffler's ninth home run of the year, a two-run shot, that extended the lead to 11-0 after five.
CBC avoided the run-rule by scoring one in each of the sixth and seventh innings but that was it for the day's scoring.
Billy Heil exited after six innings. He allowed one unearned run in route to his fifth win.
Matt Huss and
Ryan Turner took care of the final three frames.
Kyle O'Brien finished a triple short of the cycle. He was 3-5 in the night cap.
Noah Hemphill was 2-5 and extended his reached-base streak to 21 games.
WHAT'S NEXT
The four-game series concludes on Friday with a doubleheader beginning at noon. The Spartans will play Culver-Stockton in non-conference DH on Tuesday and then complete the regular season AMC schedule with four at home against Harris-Stowe next Friday and Saturday.
