O'FALLON, Mo. – Carter Sabol hurled a complete game with eight strikeouts and was backed by a pair of home runs from Carlos Hidalgo to push Missouri Baptist University into the American Midwest Conference Championship game over Columbia College on Thursday night.
 
MBU moves on to play the winner of Columbia College and Mission University at 5 p.m., for the title on Friday, May 2. Either club would have to beat the Spartans in consecutive games, while MBU needs a single win.
 
Columbia Recap
MBU baseball punched its ticket to the title match with an 11-1 short-game win over rival Columbia College on Friday night. The Spartans got a complete game with eight punchouts from Carter Sabol and hit four home runs in the rout.
 
Sabol struck out the first two batters he faced in the first inning and set down six of the first seven.
 
Jakob Kouneski doubled to lead off the bottom of the second, Jayden Orozco walked, and Carlos Hidalgo kicked off a big individual performance with a three-run blast to left-center. Shortstop Dominic Palma paired a stellar defensive play deep in the hole in the top of the first with a solo home run in the second to make it a 4-0 Spartan advantage.
 
Columbia quieted the MBU offense over the next few frames, but Hidalgo doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning to fire it back up. Palma singled, Blayne Yarger drove him in with an RBI triple, and then scored on a double from James Jett.
 
Orozco and Hidalgo went back-to-back with solo home runs in the fifth inning, and Jett made it an 11-1 game with a single to left-center.
 
CC broke through on Sabol with a leadoff double in the sixth and a one-out, RBI single from Tyler Renn. After the two-run bottom of the sixth, the 6-9 graduate student from Nokomis, Illinois, settled in and wrapped up the run-rule game with a scoreless top of the seventh.
 
In total, Sabol went seven innings, allowed three hits, one earned run, two walks, and picked up eight strikeouts. He improved his 2025 record to 11-1 and dropped his earned run average to 2.26.
 
Winning Pitcher: Carter Sabol (11-1)
Losing Pitcher: L. Rutherford (6-3)
 
Batting Leaders
Carlos Hidalgo: 3-for-3, 2 HR, 2B, 4 RBI, 3 R
James Jett: 2-for-4, 2B, 3 RBI
Dominic Palma: 3-for-4, HR, RBI, 3 R
Jayden Orozco: 1-for-2, HR, RBI, 2 R, BB
 
Records:
No. 16 Missouri Baptist: 39-9
Columbia: 40-8
 
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