WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Brennen van Breusegen legged out an inside-the-park-homer and
Collin Jones struck out three and walked zero over 5 2/3 innings as No. 6-ranked Central Missouri Mules baseball made it 15 consecutive wins with a 13-5 victory over the Rogers State Hillcats in the opening game of a three-game MIAA series Friday, March 25, at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field.
The Mules (20-3, 14-0 MIAA) and the Hillcats (15-12, 9-5 MIAA) are scheduled to play game two of the series Saturday, March 26, at 2 p.m.
A native of Columbia, Ill., van Breusegen went a perfect 2-for-2 with a triple and his inside-the-park home run and tallied a pair of RBIs while
John Prudhom homered and drove in three runs, pacing Central Missouri at the plate for the game.
Jones, who hails from Leavenworth, Kan., improved to 5-0 on the mound and lowered his MIAA-best ERA to 1.89 after scattering seven hits and surrendering just four runs – one earned – on 87 pitches in his 5 2/3 innings of work.
The Mules scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning to race out to a 4-0 advantage on an RBI ground-out bunt from Prudhom and RBI singles off the bats of
Cole Moore,
Garrett Pennington and
Donovan Ditto.
Rogers State plated an unearned run in the top of the second, cutting the UCM lead to 4-1, but Prudhom smashed a lead-off, solo shot to left-center in the bottom-half of the frame, upping the Mule advantage to 5-1. It was Prudhom's team-best eighth home run of the season.
The Hillcats trimmed the lead to 5-4 with a run in the fourth and two in the fifth, both unearned, but Central Missouri exploded for seven in the sixth to build its advantage to 12-4.
The Mules scored their seven runs on Pennington,
Isaiah Pani and
Michael Chrisman RBI singles, a
Harrison Schnurbusch two-RBI double to left-center, and two sacrifice flies from van Breusegen and Prudhom.
van Breusegen put an exclamation mark on the game in the eighth, roping an 0-2 pitch to the deepest part of the ballpark – left-center – and circling the bases for his inside-the-park round-tripper. It was his second homer of 2022.
Jesse Holguin went 2-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs, pacing Rogers State offensively.
RSU starting pitcher Nathan Chase (1-2) suffered the loss after giving up five earned runs on six hits with two walks and zero strikeouts in four innings.
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