Bolivar, Mo. – The Bearcat baseball team added two more games to the win column after taking both games of the double header from Champion Christian College. Unlike the first game of the series, both games today were decided by three runs or fewer. The sweep marked the program's first three-game series sweep since 2020.
In game one, the Tigers jumped to an early 2-0 lead in the 2
nd inning. Then starting pitcher
Eli Stewart was able to settle down for the rest of his outing before giving up one more run in the 5
th inning. That run proved to be the Tigers last run of the game. The Bearcats were able to get the line moving in the bottom of the 7
th inning which started with back-to-back walks to
Beau Honeycutt and
Sam Schmidt. The next batter would proceed to ground out which would move the runners to 2
nd and 3
rd. The player of the game,
Hayden Prewitt came up to bat and used his speed and an error by the opposing defense for an inside the park homerun tying the game 3-3. Prewitt would later come up to bat in the next inning to drive in two more runs to give the Bearcats the lead and all the runs support they would need to close out the game. Conner Hamonds came in to relieve Stewart and pitched two shutout frames, only allowing 2 hits, no walks and no runs, claiming the win.
Koen Van T Klooster would come in during the 9
th inning and pitched lights-out by striking out the side to close out game one and earn the save.
The bats came alive for both teams in game two. The Tigers led off the scoring in the 1
st inning by plating two runs. The Bearcats would quickly answer back with one run in the 2
nd and five runs in the 3
rd off a few Tiger miscues and a base clearing triple from
Cameron Dean. The Tigers wouldn't go down easily as they added seven combined runs in the 4
th and 5
th inning. Leading by only two runs in the bottom of the 6
th inning, Ray Legito would add three more to the score with a base clearing hit.
Koen Van T Klooster came in for the last two innings and shut down the Tigers to give the Bearcats their first home series three game sweep since 2017.
The Bearcats are back at home March 6th to open up GLVC play against the Rockhurst Hawks. The first pitch is Friday, March 6th at 5:00 PM at Dodson Field. Stay up to date with Bearcat Baseball by visiting sbubearcats.com and following SBU Athletics on Instagram (@sbubearcats)
