KINGSPORT, Tenn.  – Needing to win two games to make it to the championship game of the NAIA Baseball Championship Opening Round in Kingsport, Tenn., the Missouri Baptist Spartans made it halfway to their goal. They won their first game of the day in a rematch with No. 20 Bryan College (Tenn.) by a final of 21-4. However, needing to beat Indiana Wesleyan University to force a final game, the Spartans came up short 7-6, ending their season with a 44-9 record.
 
GAME 1: MBU 21, BRYAN 4
Playing their third game in three days, MBU needed a starter to go deep into this game, and Tony Caldwell delivered. The sophomore from Stafford, Mo. pitched eight strong innings, allowing six hits and three runs with three walks and seven strikeouts. He threw 136 pitches in the effort but allowed MBU to save their bullpen with possibly two more games coming up, one today and potentially another tomorrow.
 
The MBU offense backed up their hurler by tying their second-highest output of the season with 21 runs. They accomplished that run total on 24 hits and with the benefit of seven Bryan errors. The Spartans batted around in each of the first two innings in building a 9-0 lead. After Caldwell surrendered a solo home run in the top of the third, the Spartan offense made sure the momentum stayed squarely in the visitor's dugout by adding four more runs in the top of the fourth. When the Lions scored another run in the bottom of the fifth, MBU answered with six in the top of the sixth to take a 19-2 lead. The Spartans simply would not allow Bryan to gain any sparks of life. MBU would give up single runs in the eighth and ninth but score two of their own in the top of the ninth to win the game 21-4.
 
First baseman Cole Robinson had four hits in six at bats to go along with an RBI and three runs scored. Noah Hemphill and Blayne Yarger were both three for six with four and three RBIs, respectively. Alex Adams also had three hits.
 
Brian Higdon pitched the ninth inning and gave up an unearned run with three walks and two strikeouts. Caldwell was credited with the win and is 2-0 on the season.
 
The win avenges a 10-1 defeat administered by Bryan on Monday that knocked the Spartans into the elimination bracket. More importantly, the win put the Spartans into a game against Indiana Wesleyan University needing just a victory to force a championship game tomorrow.
 
GAME 2: IWU 7, MBU 6
The Spartans second game of the day was nothing like the first. While one might stop short of calling it a pitcher's duel, there was no shortage of good pitching, timely hitting, and loads of drama as MBU faced elimination. Ultimately, the Indiana Wesleyan Wildcats won the game 7-6 in dramatic fashion.
 
Wildcats third baseman Lucas Goodin hit his 16^th home run of the season off Spartans starter Billy Heil to lead off the bottom of the first inning. It would the first of two home runs Goodin would have on the day. IWU would add another run in the third via an error and two singles. The damage could have been worse but on the second single MBU rightfielder DJ Schmidt hit cutoff man Alex Adams who relayed perfectly to catcher Jakob Kouneski to cut down a second runner trying to score. That play would loom large as Kouneski connected on a two-run homer, his sixth of the season, in the top of the next inning to tie the game at 2-2.
 
The game would remain that way until the sixth when the Spartans took their first lead. Noah Hemphill reached on a fielder's choice and advanced to second when DJ Schmidt walked. Back-to-back RBI singles by Cesar Soto and Blane Besse put the Spartans in the lead, 4-2. Blayne Yarger recorded the final out of the inning by missing a three-run home run by a mere foot or two as the right fielder had to jump with his back against the wall to haul it in.
 
IWU would regain the lead in the bottom of the seventh with two singles and Goodin's second home run of the day, this one a three-run shot. The homer would spell the end of the day for Heil as he exited after six plus innings, giving up five runs on seven hits with two walks and five strikeouts. IWU greeted reliever Greg Ryun with another solo shot to make the score 6-4 in favor of Indiana Wesleyan. The Wildcats had seized the momentum and needed only six outs to claim the title.
 
The Spartans had other plans. Besse and Yarger both delivered one-out singles and advanced to second and third on a passed ball. Alex Adams came up big with a two-run single to tie the game. After another single the Spartans had the lead run on second base with one out but could not chase any additional runs home. Still, they had tied the game at six heading into the bottom of the eighth.
 
Then came the fateful bottom of the ninth. Reliever Skout Rallo gave up a one-out double, a hit by pitch, and a wild pitch to put the winning run on third base. The Spartans elected to intentionally pass the next batter to load the bases and have a force out at every bag. Rallo was able to coax the next batter into a foul out to Cole Robinson at first for the second out. Rallo fell behind the next hitter 3-0 before a called strike and a swinging strike evened the count. His next, and final, delivery was a full-count pitch on the inside part of the plate that was called a ball, and the Wildcats won the game, and the regional, on a walk-off free pass.
 
Besse, who was the first AMC Player of the Year for the Spartans since Orlando Olivera in 2015, finished the game three for three with a walk, a run scored and an RBI. Robinson was the only other Spartan with multiple hits, as he went two for five at the plate.

Indiana Wesleyan advances to the Avista-NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho beginning on May 26, 2023.
 
It's a disappointing end to what was by many measures a record-setting season. MBU finishes the year with a 44-9 record. The win total is the highest since the 2017 season (45), which incidentally was the last time the Spartans made it to the Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series. The .830 winning percentage is the highest in program history dating back to the beginning of accurate record-keeping in 2005.