ST. CLOUD, Minn. – A bad break broke open a 1-1 tie in the top of the second and the Missouri Western baseball team couldn’t recover, falling 10-4 in the NCAA Central Regional to top seeded St. Cloud State on Friday morning.

With one on and two out in the top of the second, Nick Gawley slipped down and just missed a pop up that would have ended the inning. A run scored on Gawley’s fall and St. Cloud State went on to score four more in the inning to take a 6-1 lead. St. Cloud added two more in the top of the fifth on back-to-back solo home runs that chased Weston Caindec from the game. In his final start for the Griffons, Caindec went four and a third, allowing eight runs on 11 hits. He struck out one and walked one.

Orencio Fisher hit a one-out solo home run to left in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to 8-2. Jeremy Alvarado also hit a one-out solo shot in the sixth to pull the Griffons within three. In the seventh, Gawley cut the lead to four runs with an RBI single that scored Fisher for the third time in the game, but a fielding error in the bottom eighth allowed a fly ball that would have been the final out of the inning to score a run. St. Cloud State added another in the ninth.

Missouri Western struggled to move runners, stranding 11. The Griffons touched St. Cloud State for 13 hits, but just the four runs to show for it. Fisher went 3-5 with an RBI and three runs scored in his final game as a Griffon. Gawley wasl also 3-5 with an RBI and Alavarado went 3-4 with a run scored and an RBI.

The loss ended the Griffons’ season at 38-20, the second most wins in program history. Along the way, the team set program records for runs, hits, home runs and RBIs. It was just the third regional appearance for the program. The team is now 1-6 in regional games and has not won since its first appearance in 2006.

— MWSU Athletics —