Bolivar, Mo. - The SBU Bearcat baseball team opened up MIAA play with an 11-8 victory over Nebraska-Omaha on Thursday, March 3.

Nebraska-Omaha jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, but SBU responded well scoring five runs in the bottom half of the third. SBU was able to piece together runs off of hits by Jeremiah Bryan, Landon Young, Niko Saladis, and Paden Grubbs, with Taylor Trotter capping off the inning with a two-run homerun.  UNO put up two more runs in the fifth, but SBU responded again in the bottom half of the inning by scoring six runs of their own.  Grubbs blasted a two-run homerun, and Dominic Bouvier and Saladis both had RBI hits in the inning. UNO would try to surmount a comeback by scoring three in the 6th and one in the 7th, but the Bearcats prevailed, winning 11-8.

The second game of the double-header on Thursday saw lots of offense once more, however the Bearcats lost to the Mavericks 19-8 in seven innings. UNO put up one run in the first and second innings, and added four more in the third before SBU responded with three runs of their own in the bottom half of the fourth.  SBU pieced together solid at-bats in the inning with Brendon Cox and Bouvier producing RBI hits. The Bearcats would add four more in the sixth, with RBI's by Grubbs, Cox, Bryan, and Young.  Cox doubled in the seventh, his fourth hit and third RBI in the contest, but it wasn't enough as the Bearcats lost 19-8.

The Bearcats and the Mavericks had a tough battle in the third game of the weekend, with the contest remaining close throughout the ballgame.  UNO took an early 2-0 lead on SBU by scoring two in the top half of the first. SBU came back in the bottom half of the second when Tyler Christophel hit an RBI single to drive home Bryan and cut UNO's lead to 2-1.  UNO had a big inning in the sixth, producing five runs, and was able to push the lead to 8-1. SBU showed life in the seventh when Bryan had an RBI single, but UNO came out on top, 8-2.

In the final game of the weekend, SBU once again hung tough with the Mavericks. UNO struck first in the top half of the second inning, but SBU quickly tied the game up in the bottom of the half of the fifth inning off an RBI single by Young. The score remained tied until the sixth, where UNO would score in the next three innings and push the lead to 8-1.  The eighth inning started out well for the Bearcats, producing two runs while only committing one out with help by a triple by Saladis and an RBI by Grubbs, but the Bearcats lost the contest 8-3.

"I thought we played hard and with a lot of energy the whole series," head coach Sam Berg commented after the weekend.  "I was proud of the way we approached the weekend.  We beat one of the best pitchers in D-II baseball.  In the other games we had other opportunities at the plate and failed to get a clutch hit when we needed one.  Nebraska-Omaha got clutch hits when they needed them and that was the main difference in the series.  We will take the positive things and build off of them and work on the things we need to improve on as we look forward to Washburn this week."

The Bearcats will return to field on Tuesday, March 8, 2011 when they host College of the Ozarks, with the opening pitch set for 2:00 p.m. from Bolivar.