HANNIBAL, Mo. – Leading up to the 2023 Missouri Baptist Spartans Baseball season, longtime head coach Eddie Uschold mentioned often that he felt this year's team might have the ability to do something special. However, a regular season culminating in a No. 8 ranking and a 40-5 regular season record following a 13-4 victory over Hannibal-LaGrange on Friday might have exceeded any reasonable expectations.
 
Although the final score indicates a lopsided affair, it didn't really become so until the Spartans outscored the Trojans 8-0 after the sixth inning. To that point they led only 5-4.
 
Other than the closeness midway through the game, the contest followed a similar recipe as the first two in the series that the Spartan had won. Good starting pitching and early offense would set the tone, then more explosive offense late to put the game away. Although the offense was a little more sporadic than previous efforts. The Spartans scored in every odd inning and only the eighth as far as the evens.
 
This game also marked the return the evident prodigious power in Cole Robinson's bat. The big first baseman from St. Louis hit a two-run home run in the third inning. He then went one better by hitting a three-run bomb in the seventh. His seventh inning home run, in addition be being his 12^th of the season, seemed to be a backbreaker for the Trojans as it turned a close 6-4 score in favor of the Spartans into a five run lead from which HLGU would not recover. The home runs were the first off the bat of Robinson since April 7. Robinson trails team leader Blane Besse by two in that category as Besse hit a round-tripper of his own in the fifth inning.
 
Besse and Alex Adams had two runs batted in. Blayne Yarger continued his hot streak at the plate by going three for five with and RBI and two runs scored.
 
Billy Heil got the start on the hill for MBU and pitched three innings, facing just one over the minimum. He surrendered zero hits, while walking one and striking out six. Following Heil to the mound were Brian Higdon, Brady Stephan, Skout Rallo, and finally Yarger, making his pitching debut of the season. Each reliever gave up just two hits and held the Trojans to just four runs over six relief innings. With two more scoreless frames on Friday, Rallo finishes the regular season with a 0.64 ERA in 19 and two-thirds innings as well as six saves.
 
The last time the Spartans finished with more than 40 wins was the 2017 season, which is also the last season MBU participated in the Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series. MBU clinched their first AMC Regular Season Championship since 2017 by winning two games at HLGU on Thursday.  Not counting the COVID year, it is the 13^th regular season title for MBU in the last 21 seasons.
 
MBU will look to add to their win total when they open play in the American Midwest Conference Championship Tournament on Wednesday at 10 a.m. at Carshield Field in O'Fallon, Mo. against an opponent to be determined.