ST. LOUIS – The Missouri Baptist baseball team wrapped up the regular season Friday with a 12-9 road win at Harris-Stowe State University and helped fortify a top-four seed for next week's American Midwest Conference (AMC) Baseball Championship. Despite some ups and downs, the Spartans bounced back from an 8-6 loss in the opener to win the final two games of the series.
Friday's triumph gave Missouri Baptist its sixth AMC series win, finishing the conference slate with a 14-7 record. This season, the only series setback for MoBap (23-21, 14-7 AMC) came down in Arkansas against Central Baptist.
MBU, which tied for third with William Woods (29-16, 14-7 AMC), earned the No. 3 seed for the tourney holding a tiebreaker over the Owls. The Spartans will play under the lights in Tuesday's 7 p.m. game and will get the winner of the 6-7 matchup between Harris-Stowe and Williams Baptist.
Game One – Harris-Stowe State 8, Missouri Baptist 6 (7 Inn.)
The Spartans appeared to be in complete control of Game One early on. Starting pitcher
Matthew Hess was dominant in the first three innings, striking out eight of the first 10 batters he faced. The offense was also clicking with two runs right out of the gate and a
Carter Mize two-run homer in the third to up the Spartans' lead to 4-0.
HSSU finally figured out how to hit off Hess in the bottom of the fourth and erased MBU's advantage with four runs on five hits.
The two teams traded blows in the fifth, with the Hornets outscoring the Spartans 3-2 to take their first lead of the game. Unfortunately, Missouri Baptist didn't have any offense in the tank and left too many opportunities on the table late in the game. As a result, the Spartans left 10 stranded in the loss.
Game Two – Missouri Baptist 19, Harris-Stowe State 15 (11 Inn.)
The ebb and flow of the series was most present in Game Two of Thursday's doubleheader. Like Game One, the Spartan bats were producing early on, especially in the second. The Hornets walked in a run with the bases loaded, followed by a 2-RBI single for
Cesar Soto and a 3-run HR for
Jordan Brandenburg. MBU led 6-1 at that point.
The momentum shifted in Harris-Stowe's favor in the 6
th, 7
th, and 8
th as the Hornets scored 12 of their 15 runs. Heading into the ninth, the Spartans trailed 15-10 and needed a rally.
Mize homered for the second game in a row to lead off the ninth and ultimately sparked the comeback. Then with two outs on the board, the Spartans kicked it into overdrive and recorded four consecutive RBI singles from
Hutch Kettler,
PJ Brooks,
Blane Besse, and
Cesar Soto. With the comeback complete, the Spartans forced extra innings. The two squads experienced five lead changes and four ties in the game.
MBU made its move with two outs again in the 11
th. The Spartans manufactured four more runs to take a 19-15 lead. MBU continued to ride the arm of RHP
Hunter Nelson of Standish, Mich. The 6-5 junior out of Muskegon Community College lasted longer than most of the pitchers on Thursday and managed to shut down the Hornets. In 3.2 innings of scoreless relief, Nelson yielded just three hits and recorded his first win of the year.
Both teams were raking the ball in Game Two combining for 39 total hits, 34 runs, and six home runs.
Game Three – Missouri Baptist 12, Harris-Stowe State 9 (9 Inn.)
Trailing 2-0 after one, the Spartans didn't hit the panic button and were rewarded with a six-run second inning. Then, following a 2-run blast by
Alex Adams, Missouri Baptist jumped ahead 6-2 and never relinquished the lead afterward.
The Spartans eventually increased the margin to six at 10-4, which was necessary to fend off a Hornet attack in the sixth and seventh. Harris-Stowe scored four unanswered to bring it within two runs, however, MBU reacted accordingly with two more runs for safe measure.
Nearly all nine starters registered a hit in the game led by AMC Player of the Week
Jordan Brandenburg (3-of-5, 1 R, 3 RBI),
Hayden Roney (3-of-5, 1 RBI), and
Alex Adams (1-for-5, 1 R, 4 RBI). On the mound,
Micah Diamond got the win and fanned six Hornets in 4.0 IP.
