WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Chase Wilcox hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the 12th inning to help top seeded University of Central Missouri Mules Baseball to an 8-7 victory over the No. 8-seeded Harding University Bisons in the opening game of the 2025 NCAA-II Central Regional Thursday afternoon, May 15, at Crane Stadium/Tompkins Field.
The Mules (39-11) advance in the winner's bracket of the double-elimination tournament and will face No. 5-seeded Arkansas Tech (32-21) Friday evening, May 16, at 6 p.m. in Warrensburg.
UCM trailed 5-2 going into the bottom of the fifth inning when
Jacob Steele tied the contest on one swing, crushing a towering, three-run home run to left field. It was his 12th homer of the season.
Neither team was able to plate a go-ahead run after nine innings, sending the game into extra innings.
Harding's Harrison Griffith gave the Bisons a 7-5 lead with a two-run homer in the top of the 10th inning before
Brett Grupe belted a two-RBI, two-out single through the left side in the bottom-half of the inning, knotting the game, 7-7.
Both teams failed to score in the 11th, sending the contest to inning number 12.
After UCM relief pitcher
Jake Wilson tossed a 1-2-3 top of the 12th to keep Harding from scoring,
Dayvin Johnson led-off the bottom of the inning with a walk before stealing second base and moving to third on a fly-out from
Chase Heath. Wilcox delivered the game-winning hit on a 3-2 pitch, belting a single into the right-center gap, plating Johnson to seal the 8-7 triumph.
Johnson went 2-for-4 with two solo home runs – upping his season total to 14 – and added four runs and two RBI while Wilcox,
Cole Kreisel and
Isaiah Keller each had two hits, Steele tallied three runs batted in on his home run, and Grupe added a pair of RBI on his game-tying single, pacing UCM at the plate.
Wilson (5-1) earned the win on the mound after allowing no earned runs on zero hits with three strikeouts and one walk in two innings. Fellow UCM reliever
JD McReynolds threw six innings and gave up just one hit while posting a career-high nine strikeouts and zero walks on 84 pitches.
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