Box Score

Bolivar, Mo. - The Southwest Baptist University baseball team picked up a 3-2 series opening victory over Missouri Southern on Friday afternoon. With the win the Bearcats improve to 19-9 (9-7 MIAA) on the season.

The Bearcats, who won their fourth consecutive MIAA contest, received a strong pitching performance from starter Brian Womack. SBU and MSSU went through the first two innings scoreless before Southwest Baptist jumped on the board in the bottom of the third. With two outs in the inning, Cody Massey singled up the middle followed by a single from Caleb Sneed to put runners on first and second. Chance Wolfe then hit an rbi single through the right side, plating Massey, and giving SBU a 1-0 lead.

Southern responded in the top half of a fourth with a run of their own, but after a scoreless fifth the Bearcats re-took the lead. Hunter Hisky led the inning off with a solo shot to right field, giving SBU a 2-1 lead, followed by a single to left field from Sean Murley. Nelson Muniz then singled to center, and after a sacrifice bunt from Jovany Urbieta, Andrew Meier hit a sacrifice fly to left to extend the lead to 3-1. MSSU got one run back in the top half of the seventh, but strong bullpen performances from Carter Newton, Jay Kaufman, and Wolfe secured the 3-2 victory.

Brian Womack threw 7.0 innings, allowing only 2 runs to go along with 5 strikeouts in the victory. Chance Wolfe came on to pick up his fourth save of the year, while Caleb Sneed picked up a team high 2 hits on the afternoon.

SBU will return to action on Saturday, April 1 when they close out their series with Missouri Southern. Opening pitch of game one of the double-header is set to begin at 12:00 p,m. (noon) from Dodson Field in Bolivar.