WARRENSBURG, Mo. (April 19, 2016) -- The 12th-ranked Mules out-hit Southwest Baptist 17-14 and held off the Bearcats 12-10 on Tuesday afternoon at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field. The game was originally scheduled to be played in Bolivar, but had to be moved because of heavy rain totals in Bolivar. Because of that, SBU was the home team.
The Mules (26-10, 24-5 MIAA) got on the board first, scoring two runs in the top of the second inning.
Derek Cornell led off the inning with a triple and scored on
Matt Safranek's sacrifice bunt.
Jackson Schnurbusch added a sacrifice fly as well.
The Bearcats (17-22, 12-17 MIAA) came right back with four runs of their own in the home half. The big blow was a three-run home run by Christian Binger that bounced off the top of the wall in left and over the wall.
The Mules regained the lead in the third inning with five runs to take a 7-4 lead. Safranek had an RBI single to plate the first run and scored on
Matt Elliott's sacrifice fly. UCM had two on with two out, when
Dylan Farrell belted a shot over the wall in left for a three-run home run.
UCM tacked on two more in the fifth on a Schnurbusch RBI double and a
Blake Wilfong run-scoring single. The Bearcats got both runs back in the bottom of the frame on RBI single from Hunter Hisky and Cody Massey to make it 9-6.
Jake Alexander's RBI single and a run-scoring double play in the sixth gave UCM an 11-6 advantage, but SBU scored two runs without a hit in the seventh to pull within 11-8.
Bennett Oliver extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a solo home run in the eighth inning to give UCM a 12-8 lead, but the Bearcats battled back with two more runs in the home half to pull within 12-10.
SBU brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth against
Andy Muehlberger, but he got Binger to fly out to center field to end the game. In the process, Muehlberger picked up his second save of the season.
Ben Kelsch (1-0) earned the win in relief for the Mules after allowing two runs on five hits in 1.2 innings.
Miles Kilgore (3-2) took the loss for SBU after giving up five runs on six hits in 3.1 innings of work.
The Mules are back in action this weekend at Northeastern State. The
three-game series gets underway on Friday at 2 p.m. in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
