SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The Missouri Western baseball pounded out 13 hits on their way to a 5-2 victory over the Central Oklahoma Bronchos. The Griffons will take on the winner of Emporia State and Central Oklahoma at 11 am on Saturday, May 10 in Sringfield, Mo. This marks the second straight year that the Griffons have advanced to the MIAA Championship. The Griffons need just one victory to advance to the NCAA Central Regional. The Griffons improve to 32-18 on the season.

After getting down 1-0 in the first the Griffons scored runs in four consecutive innings taking a 5-1 lead after seven innings. In the fourth inning the Griffons got three straight singles by Jake Schrader, Hutern Weiss and Mitch Thorman loading the bases. Trevor LaHonta then got hit by a pitch tying the score at one after four innings.

In the fifth inning the Griffons got the go ahead run on three hits and used two errors Broncho errors. Cody Childs reached on an throwing error by the third baseman and scored on the same play on an throwing error by the first basemand giving the Griffons the 2-1 lead after five.

The Griffons scored two more runs in the sixth on three hits. Mitch Thorman doubled to left center and later scored on a double to left center by Ryan Degner. Degner scored on a Dylan Koch single to left fied making it 4-1 after six innings. In the seventh another single by Thorman scored Schrader helping MWSU to the 5-1 lead.

That would be all the Griffons would need as Jake Jones and Mason Queen allowed just one more run for the Bronchos in the victory. Jake Jones went six innings giving up six hits and one earned run while striking out seven. Mason Queen went three innings giving up three hits with two strikeouits. Jones improves to 7-3 with the victory.

Degner, Koch and Degner each had three hits while Schrader had two. Schrader scored two runs while Degner, Koch, Thorman and LaHonta all had an RBI.

The Bronchos had nine hits in the game with Josh Ingram going 4-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored. Ricky Reeves got the loss falling 8-1. He went 5.1 innings giving up nine hits and two earned runs with three strikeouts. The Bronchos fall to 37-16 with the loss.

— MWSU Sports Information —