Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

Bolivar, Mo. - The Southwest Baptist University baseball team opened up the 2015 season with a double-header split against Wisconsin-Parkside on Friday afternoon in Bolivar. The Bearcats took game two 11-3 after falling 11-7 in the opening game.

In game on against the Rangers, the Bearcats jumped head early in the first inning off of UW-Parkside's starting pitcher. Trevor Bowling led the game off with an infield single, and came home on the next batter when Christian Binger belted a two-run homerun to right field to put SBU up 2-0. Payton Reed continued the strong inning for SBU with a single to center field, and then a Ross Wolfe double, coupled with an error from UW-Parkside, gave SBU a 3-0 lead. The UW-Parkside offense responded, scoring four runs in the 3rd, two in the 4th, and five in the fifth as SBU trailed 11-3 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning. The Bearcats started to slowly chip away at the deficit. Binger led the inning off with a walk, and came home when Spencer Blacksher doubled to center field. Three batters later, Jake Vore singled up the middle to score Blacksher, followed by an rbi single to center by Ross Wolfe to pull SBU within five at 11-6. After a scoreless sixth, Vore led the seventh off with a double and came home on an rbi groundout from Ross Wolfe, but it wasn't enough as SBU fell 11-7.

In the second game, Wisconsin-Parkside struck first, scoring a pair of unearned runs in the top of the first to take a 2-0 lead. After a couple of scoreless innings, UW-Parkside added to their lead with a solo homerun as the Bearcats found themselves down 3-0 heading into the bottom of the third. However, the Bearcats bats came alive in the third. With two outs in the inning, Christian Binger doubled to center field and was brought home on a massive homerun to left field by Spencer Blacksher to cut the deficit down to one at 3-2. The Bearcats were able to take the lead one inning later by smart base running and timely hitting. After leadoff walk from Chance Wolfe, Ross Wolfe tripled to left center to tie the game up 1-1. Ross Wolfe then came home on a sacrifice bunt from Tim Gurnow to give SBU a 4-3 lead.

The Bearcats bats continued to support to strong pitching effort from starting pitcher Michael Proiette. Payton Reed led the sixth off with a triple down the right field line, and following a hit batsman and a stolen base by Chance Wolfe, Jake Vore singled up the middle to extend the SBU lead to 6-3. After advancing Vore to third, Gurnow hit his second rbi sacrifice bunt of the game to put SBU up 7-3. The Bearcats added three more runs in the sixth off of an rbi single from Blacksher and a passed ball and balk, and another in the seventh off of another Blacksher single to go on to a 11-3 victory. Proiette threw an outstanding game on the mound for SBU, throwing 8.0 innings while allowing one earned run and striking out 12 batters. 

SBU will return to action on Saturday, February 14 when they host Winona State. Opening pitch of game one of the doubleheader is set to begin at 12:00 p.m. from Dodson Field in Bolivar.