Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Bolivar, Mo. – The Southwest Baptist University baseball team kicked off the 2013 season with a 5-0 victory over Central Oklahoma, followed by a 11-2 game two victory to sweep the Bronchos on Thursday. The victories marked the first wins over the Bronchos in the history of the program.

In game one the Bearcats had a strong performance from starting pitcher Dustin Caplette. Caplette threw a complete game shutout for the Bearcats, going 7.0 innings and allowing only three hits. After three innings of scoreless baseball the Bearcats jumped on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth. After a leadoff single by Ross Wolfe, and a sacrifice bunt, Landon Young singled to right field bringing home Wolfe to put SBU up 1-0. The Bearcats continued to push, adding two more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Zach Pirrello led the inning off with a double to center field and eventually would come home off of a sacrifice fly by Wolfe. Later in the inning Aaron Anderson would come home off of an rbi single from Bo Helsel to put the Bearcats up 3-0.

Caplette would once again shut down the Bronchos in the top of the sixth before the Bearcats would tack on two more runs in the bottom half of the inning. With two outs in the inning, Pirrello singled up the middle bringing Anderson to the plate. Anderson hit an inside the park homerun, blasting a ball over the centerfielder's head, putting SBU up 5-0. Caplette would finish off the complete game victory as SBU would take game one 5-0.

In game two the Bronchos jumped on the scoreboard early, taking a 1-0 lead in the first, but the Bearcats were quick to respond. In the bottom half of the inning Anderson led the game off with a single through the right side, followed by Jarod Robillard getting hit by a pitch and a sacrifice bunt by Wolfe. With runners on second and third, Hesel hit a single up the middle, plating both runners, and giving SBU a 2-1 lead. The Bearcats added two more in the inning off of Kyle Jochems single to right center to put SBU up 4-1 after one.

The Bearcats added another run in the bottom of the second when SBU loaded the bases and Spencer Blacksher was able to draw a walk to give the Bearcats a 5-1 lead. After a couple of scoreless innings, SBU once again added to their lead in the bottom of the fifth. Landon Young led the inning off by drawing a walk, and advanced to second off of a Jochems sacrifice, before Will Swofford blasted a triple to right center bringing home Young. The Bearcats added one more when Pirrello laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt down the first base line to bring home Swofford and give SBU a 7-1 lead.

After a Central Oklahoma run in the top of the sixth, the Bearcats responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the sixth off of a Blacksher single through the left side to bring home Robillard. Jochems then singled down the left field line to bring home Helsel, followed by an rbi single up the middle by Swofford to give the Bearcats a 10-2. SBU was able to add another run in the seventh when Hesel hit an rbi single on the left field line, bringing home Anderson, to put SBU up 11-2. The Bearcats would go on to claim an 11-2 game two victory.

On the afternoon the Bearcats collected 19 hits and scored 16 runs. Aaron Anderson, Bo Helsel, and Will Swofford all collected three hits on the afternoon for SBU. Anderson had an inside the park two-run homerun, a triple, scored 5 runs, and had two runs batted in. Helsel knocked in 4 runs while scoring 2, and Jochems had three rbi on the afternoon.

"I was really happy with our pitching and defense," head coach Chris Martin stated after the victories. "We have to be consistent in those areas. I thought offensively we played the small game really well which gave us a lot of opportunities. I am really proud of our guys. We'll get ready tonight for tomorrow and give it our best shot."

The Bearcats will return to action on Friday, February 15 when they host Central Oklahoma for the final game of the three-game series. Opening pitch is set for 1:00 p.m. from Dodson Field in Bolivar.