SAINT LOUIS – The Missouri Baptist Spartans winning streak reached four on Saturday as they beat William Woods University in both ends of a doubleheader. The Spartans took the first game 8-2 and the second 10-0, both in seven innings. MBU is now 26-8 overall on the season with an 11-1 record in the American Midwest Conference.
 
GAME ONE: MBU 8, WWU 2
The Spartans made an early lead standup in a game that was much tighter than the final score would indicate. After the Spartans scored three in the bottom of the first inning, both starting pitchers settled in to put up zeros until the fifth.
 
MBU scored three runs in the first inning with the benefit of three consecutive singles following an error that would have allowed the Owls to escape unscathed. Blane Besse lead off the game with a single but was still at first with two outs. Cole Robinson hit a hard ground ball through the legs of the second baseman to keep the rally alive. Jakob Kouneski, Cameron Roll, and Jayden Orozco all followed with singles to put the Spartans on top 3-0 after one inning.
 
Then Spartans' starter Landon Albers and Owls' hurler Peyton Clampitt would combine to allow one hit in the next three innings. In fact Clampitt would retire 10 Spartans in row from the last out of the first through leadoff hitter in the fifth. Albers' only hiccup was a solo home run given up in the top of the fifth.
 
To start the bottom of the fifth Cesar Soto got on base via an error by the first baseman. Later in the inning, Blayne Yarger was hit by a pitch. Then Alex Adams singled to score Soto, followed by a Robinson double to bring home Yarger. The final run of the inning was Adams crossing the plate on a sacrifice fly by Cameron Roll. The Spartans had finally given themselves some breathing room with a 6-1 lead heading into the sixth inning.
 
Skout Rallo relieved Albers in the sixth and surrendered the second solo home run of the game for the Owls. That would be the only hit given up by Rallo in his two innings.
 
Yarger made sure to keep the Owls at bay by hitting his fifteenth home run of the season, a two-run shot, in the bottom of the fifth, making the final score 8-2 in favor of MBU. The home run total for Yarger is second on the team to Alex Adams who has 16.
 
Albers picked up the win to improve his record to 4-1 on the year.
 
GAME TWO: MBU 10, WWU 0
Whereas Game One felt relatively tight throughout, Spartans' starter Jackson Wells made sure there was no such drama in Game Two. Wells pitched a seven-inning complete game while giving up just four hits, walking three, and striking out six. Only twice in the game did an Owls player make it to third base.
 
Some shaky defense helped the Spartans score runs in the first inning for the third game in the three-game series. After the first two batters were out, Alex Adams reached on an error by the shortstop. Cole Robinson followed with a walk. Jakob Kouneski made the earlier error hurt by launching an opposite field home run. The three-run bomb was his seventh in the last six games and gives him 21 RBIs in that span.
 
MBU would strike again in the fifth for five more runs. Kouneski got it rolling with a two-out single, then gave way to pinch-runner DJ Schmidt. Cameron Roll walked, then Jayden Orozco singled and Schmidt scored when the ball got away from the first baseman. Lucas Lefebvre doubled to bring in Roll and Orozco to increase the advantage to 6-0. After back-to-back walks loaded the bases, Blayne Yarger singled to score Lefebvre and Cesar Soto. MBU lead 8-0.
 
Another Owls error in the sixth allowed the Spartans to extend the lead to 10 in the sixth. With two outs, Kouneski reached on a error by the third baseman, then Cameron Roll got aboard when the pitcher misplayed a ball down the line at first. Orozco loaded the bases with an infield single to second, then Lefebvre drove in two more with a single through the right side.
 
Despite walking two batters in the top of the seventh, Wells was able to close out his own seven-inning win as the game ended via "run rule" after seven innings. The Spartans offense scored in the first, fifth, and sixth innings, with all three rallies starting after the first two batters were retired. Not only did they score all 10 runs with two outs, they didn't have hit in those innings until after two outs.
 
MBU is now 26-8 on the year and 11-1 in the American Midwest Conference. The Owls dropped to 18-18-1 and 6-5 in conference. In a strange twist of happenstance, it was unveiled yesterday that both schools will be leaving the AMC for the Heart of America Conference for all sports beginning in the 2025-26 school year.
 
The Spartans will play Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. at Mission University, formerly Baptist Bible College, in Ozark, Mo. They will return to AMC play next weekend when they host Williams Baptist University for a doubleheader on Friday.