Mother nature definitely made it feel like playoff baseball as game time conditions felt like mid October as opposed to the first day of May as Missouri Western was defeated by Southwest Baptist 6-4 in game one of the MIAA Baseball Championship at the Spring Sports Complex.
SBU drew first blood in the opening frame as power hitting infielder Spencer Blackshear hit his 15th home run of the season to left center field off Grant Woods giving the Bearcats a 1-0 lead. The Griffs came right back with a three run second. With one out, Will Carter doubled, Hunter Weiss reached on an error and Mitch Thorman singled scoring Carter. One batter later, Cody Childs doubled scoring Weiss, with Trevor LaHonta driving in the third run via sacrifice fly.
One inning later, David Chew tripled with one out and Jake Schrader’s sacrifice fly made it 4-1.
Grant Woods seemed to be cruising along until the 6th inning when with one out, three straight SBU hits culminating with a Chance Wolfe RBI ground out brought the Bearcats to within one at 4-3.
Woods was lifted six innings allowing three earned runs and striking out four.
Late inning stopper Mason Queen came on for the Griffons in the top of the seventh inning but the SBU bats stayed hot. With runners at second and third and two out, the Griffs elected to walk Spencer Blackshear to load the bases. Queen hit the next batter Jake Vore to tie the game, then Bo Helsel’s two out, two RBI single gave SBU their first lead of the game.
The Griffs threatened in the ninth as the first two batters reached, but SBU pitcher Cory Borsh, who was masterful all evening retired the last three Griffons for the final tally.
Borsh improves to 6-2 on the year in pitching a complete game allowing two earned runs and striking out two.
Queen took the loss for the Griffs falling to 3-4 allowing three runs in three innings.
SBU takes a 1-0 lead in the best of three game series with game two set for Friday, May 2nd at 6 PM at the Spring Sports Complex. Admission is $5.00 for adults with children 6 & under and MWSU students being admitted free.
— MWSU Sports Information —