SAINT LOUIS – The Missouri Baptist Spartans knew they needed to win one of two games against Columbia College (Mo.) on Saturday to put themselves in the driver's seat for the AMC Regular Season title and the top seed in the upcoming AMC Baseball Championship Tournament. However, the Cougars were not in a generous mood, annihilating the Spartans 19-1 in the first game of the day. But the Spartans summoned up their fair share of moxie to rise from that defeat and beat the Cougars 15-7 in the second game.
 
GAME ONE: CC 19, MBU 1
A day after the Spartans won on a dramatic ninth-inning home run, the Cougars exacted revenge in the first game. Not much went right for MBU as Spartans pitchers were roughed up for 19 runs on 20 hits, including a double, three triples, and four home runs. The Spartans bats were far less active, as they managed a single run on five hits, with no single player getting more than one. Cameron Roll had the only RBI of the game for MBU, with a first inning single that scored Blane Besse to tie the game at one. Then the Cougars scored 18 unanswered runs, including at least one in every inning except the sixth and seventh.
 
Spartans' starter Landon Albers took his second loss of the season by lasting just an inning and two-thirds while giving up four earned runs. Almost all of six Spartans hurlers were roughed up in the game with the exceptions of gently used Adrien Clark and Adrian Burciaga. Clark went an inning and third without giving up a hit while walking one and striking out one. Burciaga pitched the top of the seventh and gave up a hit with a walk and a strikeout.
 
The loss snapped a ten game winning streak for MBU and more or less forced a winner-take all game for the top spot in the conference.
 
GAME TWO: MBU 15, CC 7
At the beginning of the second game, the Spartans relied on the sage advice of the great television philosopher Ted Lasso, "Be a Goldfish." Because Game Two had a different feel almost from the first pitch. Well, it was either Lasso's words, or Spartans starting pitcher Jackson Wells' efforts. One of those two turned the tide on the day.
 
Wells did allow an unearned run in the first inning, but he also limited the damage and stranded two runners by retiring the last two batters in the inning. Unlike the first two games of the series when the Cougars scored eight and nine runs in the first three innings, respectively, Wells was consistently able to either get out of jams or not get in trouble in the first place. Also, unlike the first two games of the series, his offense kept scoring.
 
The Spartans offense matched the single run by the Cougars in the bottom of the first via Cameron Roll double that scored Alex Adams. When Columbia regained the lead with a two-run homer in the second, the Spartans answered back with four of their own. Designated hitter DJ Schmidt led off with a single, then first baseman Joe Schmidt was struck by a pitch. Cesar Soto laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move them both into scoring position. Blane Besse joined them on the basepaths with a walk. A Blayne Yarger fielder's choice brought home DJ Schmidt to cut the deficit to 4-2. Alex Adams came to the plate and launched his nineteenth home run of the season. The three-run shot gave the Spartans only their second lead of the entire weekend, and their first since Soto's walk off home run on the final swing of the first game of the three-game series on Friday. But Adam's contributions were hardly done.
 
When the Cougars got a run in the top of the third, the Spartans answered back with two of their own, both courtesy of a two-run homer by Joe Schmidt who was playing first base in place of the suspended Cole Robinson. The blast gave the Spartans a 7-4 cushion heading to the fourth inning.
 
Wells would then throw up zeros on the scoreboard until he was lifted to start the fifth inning after 105 pitches. Then it was Brady Stephan's turn to keep the Cougars offense in check, which he did effectively.
 
In the bottom of the fifth the Spartans added three more runs. Yarger hit a sacrifice fly to score Soto, then Adams connected again. His second home run of the game, and 20th of the season, was a two-run shot that extended the Spartan lead to 10-4.
 
The Cougars got a run back in the top of the seventh inning, at which time Stephan gave way to Sean Keene, who retired two of the three batters he faced in the inning, ending yet another Cougars threat.
 
Three more Spartans runs came around in the bottom of the seventh as Jakob Kouneski picked up a painful RBI by getting hit by a pitch with bases loaded, then Cameron Roll did the same. Later in the inning DJ Schmidt earned a free pass with the bases packed for the final run of the inning as the Spartans led 13-5.
 
After the Cougars scored another single run in the top of the eighth, Yarger and Kouneski had RBI singles in the bottom of the inning to ensure Columbia could pick up no momentum.
 
Wells final numbers were four innings pitched, four runs, three earned, on four hits, with five walks and five strikeouts. Those numbers don't pop off the page, but it was exactly what the Spartans needed when they needed it. Stephan lasted two and a third innings while giving up a run on three hits, with two walks and a strikeout. The senior from Wentzville, Mo. earned his third win of the season.
 
Adams finished the game three for five at the plate with two home runs, four runs scored and five RBIs. Besse, Yarger, and Kouneski each had two hits.
 
The Cougars used no fewer than nine pitchers to get through the Spartans eight offensive innings. They used three pitchers to get through the Spartans' three-run seventh inning alone.
 
The series win for MBU means the Spartans and Cougars are tied atop the AMC standings at 16-2, with MBU now owning the tiebreaker. Both teams play three more conference games, MBU against the University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy (Mo.) and CC against William Woods University (Mo.), this week on Thursday and Friday. If the teams are tied in conference record after those games, MBU will be the AMC Regular Season Champions.