Win Over Griffons Clinches 26th MIAA Regular Season Title

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (May 4, 2019) - For the 26th time in team history Central Missouri Mules baseball stands atop the MIAA. Their 3-1 win over Missouri Western clinched the conference championship for them Saturday night in St. Joseph.

Play-by-Play
• The Mules got excellent pitching from Luke Lucas and just enough runs to support him.
• The game was scoreless after three innings. In the first, Missouri Western picked up a one out hit. That turned out to be their only hit of the game. 
• Central Missouri broke the scoreless tie in the fourth. With two outs and a runner on second, Cole Taylor laced a triple into the right-center field gap as Harrison Schnurbusch came in with the game's first run.
• And inning later, Erik Webb made it a 3-0 game with a two-RBI double to left as Zak Whalin and Mason Janvrin came in to score.
• The Griffons didn't get another base-runner until the eighth inning when they scored their only run. Luke Lucas ran into trouble with a pair of two-out walks.
• A fielding error loaded the bases and a wild pitch scored the Griffons only run. MWSU put a run on the board without getting a hit in the inning.
• Jonathan Sprinkle came in and got the final five outs for the save.

Mules Stat Leaders
• Luke Lucas pitched a gem throwing 7.1 innings and allowing just the one unearned run on one hit with six strikeouts.
• Jonathan Sprinkle recorded five outs, four strikeouts for the save.
• Donovan Ditto picked up two hits in four at bats.
• Erik Webb reached base twice with a double and a walk and two RBI.
• Cole Taylor picked up an RBI triple.
• Mason Janvrin was 1-4 with a run scored.

For the Griffons
• Jacob Purl got the start and allowed three runs on six hits in 4.1 innings.
• Anthony Castaneda struck out six in 4.2 scoreless frames.
• Andrew Curry walked and scored.
• Conrad McMahon had the only hit of the game for MWSU.

News and Notes
• The win is the 26th MIAA regular season championship for UCM and their first since 2016.
• UCM is now riding a season-high tying eight game winning streak.
• Mason Janvrin reached base for the 46th straight game this season and the 58th straight dating back to last year. That matches the longest reached base streak across two seasons since those records were kept in 2000.
• Erik Webb also upped his reached base streak to 45 games.
• Jonathan Sprinkle earns his seventh save of the season. 
• Luke Lucas improves to 5-0 on the year.
• The one-hitter is the second for the Mules this season. They also pulled off the feat against Minnesota-Crookston in February. 

Up Next
• It's the regular season finale for UCM. They go for the sweep of the Griffons tomorrow afternoon starting 1 p.m.