UPLAND, Ind. – The usually boisterous bats of the Missouri Baptist University baseball team barely made a peep Monday night in their opening game of the NAIA Baseball National Championship Tournament in Upland, Ind. MBU was held to just two base hits, both singles, in dropping a 4-0 decision to Indiana University Southeast.
 
Grenadiers' starter Luke Schafer baffled the Spartans in his eight plus innings of work. He set down the first 12 Spartans he faced before beginning the fifth inning by hitting Cole Robinson with a pitch. A leadoff single by Jayden Orozco broke up the no-hitter in the sixth inning. Although Shafer would walk four batters over the next three innings, the only other hit against him was a single with a man on in the ninth inning. At that point he was lifted after 129 pitches, with a reliever coming in to protect a 4-0 lead. Reliever Garrett Hill got the Grenadiers out of the only real trouble they faced by getting a strikeout, then hitting a batter. Hill was able to wiggle out of the bases loaded one-out jam in the bottom of the ninth by getting another strikeout and a groundout to end the game. Schafer got the win with just two hits against while walking four and striking out eight.
 
Spartans' starter Jackson Wells was effective as he pitched five innings and only gave up two runs on five hits with a walk and two strikeouts. Greg Ryun pitched two innings and gave up two runs of his own, before Will Casel came on pitch two scoreless frames.
 
The Spartans will regroup and try to battle their way back through the elimination bracket beginning tomorrow. MBU will play the winner of Indiana Tech and MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. CST in an elimination game.