Bolivar, MO. - The SBU baseball team finished their first weekend of conference play with a series win against the Cardinals of William Jewell after splitting Sunday's action at home. This brings them to 10-11 (3-1 GLVC).
Game 1: L, 3-13
William Jewell got hot at the plate, scoring 10 runs in the first three innings. In the bottom of the 4th, SBU got on the board on a bases loaded walk by Xie Ferguson that scored Graduate Dominic Tellez. Another bases loaded walk by Hayden Prewitt scored Zeke Skinner in the 6th and a SAC fly off the bat of Skinner in the 7th brought in Raydley Legito for SBU's third run.
Offensively, Lane Snow went 2-4 and Tellez finished with a double. On the mound, starter Jake Fuller finished with the loss and both Ethan Clark and Kelden Hastings saw some action in relief.
Game 2: W, 13-12 (10 innings)
Dominic Tellez started things off with a bang, sending one over the fence in right center in the bottom of the first. The Cardinals answered with 8 runs across the next two innings, but the Bearcats didn't let that phase them. Following a run by Reese Ruderman, Hayden Prewitt singled in Raydley Legito in the bottom of the 2nd to cut into the deficit. Prewitt added another RBI single in the 4th, scoring Mel Mulholland.
Following a 3-run top of the 5th by William Jewell, the Bearcat bats finally exploded for 7 runs in the bottom half of the 5th and 6th innings. Tre Mungin scored Lane Snow on an RBI triple and eventually scored himself, off of a Cardinal error. Ruderman crossed the plate on a wild pitch and Snow hit a 2-RBI double that scored both Tellez and Prewitt. To cap off the 6th inning, Zeke Skinner tied the game at 11 on a 2-run HR to left field.
In the 8th, William Jewell regained the lead momentarily before Skinner tied it again with another HR, this time a solo shot to left. As the game moved into extra innings and SBU primed themselves for a walk-off opportunity, Senior Sterling Jackson hit a pinch-hit single that scored Tre Mungin to send the Cardinals home in the bottom of the 10th.
Jaden Thacker started on the mound for the Bearcats and Cade Langford and Connor Hammonds each saw about an inning of relief before handing it off to Sam Peterson. Peterson pitched over 5 innings and finished with 7 Ks, earning him a gutsy win that moves him to (3-0).
SBU will travel to Pittsburg, KS on Tuesday, March 18th for a quick game against Pittsburg State University at 5:00 PM before they return home for a weekend series against Upper Iowa University.
