FAYETTE, Mo. – The Missouri Baptist Spartans won their first game against Central Methodist University 5-4 early this afternoon. The Eagles earned the split by sending the Spartans to their first defeat of the season 16-2 in the second game.
 
GAME ONE – MBU 5, CMU 4
Anthony Green went five innings for his third win of the season and the Spartans hung on for their 11th consecutive win to start the season. The final was 5-4. 
 
Centerfielder DJ Schmidt got the offense started in the third inning. Blane Besse singled with two outs in the top of the third then Schmidt stepped to the plate and launched a ball over the right field fence for a two-run home run. The homer was the second of the season for Schmidt and put the Spartans on top 2-0.
 
It would stay that way until the top of the fifth inning when MBU would add to the lead. A leadoff single by Blayne Yarger and a one out walk to Schmidt brought Alex Adams to the plate. He would single to right scoring Yarger and advancing Schmidt to third. Adams would then attempt to steal second and the throw got away from the shortstop, allowing Schmidt to score and Adams to advance to third to add another run for MBU. Cole Robinson would hit a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Adams and giving the Spartans a three-run frame to make it 5-0.
 
Meanwhile, on the mound, Green cruised through the first four innings surrendering just one hit while striking out seven. But he would run into trouble in the bottom half of the fifth. A lead-off homer broke the shutout. That was immediately followed by the first walk of the game issued by Green and then a double. A second run scored on a sacrifice fly and a third was plated on a throwing error trying to keep a runner from advancing from second to third. The Eagles were back within 5-3.
 
Skout Rallo would come on in relief in the sixth inning. He worked around a one out single in the sixth to keep the Spartans up by two, but had to save his best work for the bottom of the seventh. A single, a hit batsman, and another single to start the inning meant the bases were loaded with no one out. With the tying run on second base, Rallo was able to coax an infield pop up for the first out. However the next batter singled to left field and it looked as though the Eagles would tie the game in their last at bat. Leftfielder Besse came up throwing and threw a perfect strike to catcher Jakob Kouneski to cut down the second runner at the plate, keeping the Spartans in the lead 5-4. Rallo got the next man to strike out and the Spartans stayed perfect on the season.
 
Green got the win by going five innings, giving up three runs on four hits and striking out nine. Rallo picked up the save, his first of the season.
 
Offensively, Schmidt was one for three with two RBIs and two runs scored. Alex Adams and Noah Hemphill both had two hits.
 
GAME TWO – CMU 16, MBU 2
The second game of the day was all Central Methodist.  They jumped on starter Billy Heil for eight runs in an inning plus and never looked back. Heil was followed to the mound by three hurlers seeing their first action of the season. Chris Brown and Brian Higdon each pitched an inning before Hunter Nelson came on for the last three frames. Each of them gave up at least one earned run as the Eagles scored in every inning except the fifth.
 
The Spartans only offense came in the top of the sixth when Kyle Bermudez was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force home the first Spartan run of the game to make it 15-1. Catcher Joe Schmidt followed that with an RBI single to score Sage McMinn. Schmidt's single was one of only six hits for MBU with no one reaching base more than one in the game.
 
Heil took the loss to drop to 1-1 on the season, having given up eight runs on eight hits in just over an inning of work.
 
The loss snapped an 11-game winning streak to start the season, which is the longest in MBU history dating back to 2005 when records began to be accurately tracked.