The Missouri Western baseball team scored runs in the first four innings claiming a 9-3 victory over the Central Oklahoma Bronchos in the first round of the MIAA Baseball Championships.
The Griffons improve to 38-8 overall and broke the record for most victories in a season which was set back in 1974 (37). Also, with the victory head coach Buzz Verduzco won his 400th career game.
Western got on the board in the first inning when MIAA Player of the Year Michael Schulze double to right field and scored on a sacrifice fly by Kyle Simpson. Schulze’s hit broke the record for most hits in a season. He now has 84 breaking Ryan Zenn’s record of 81 which was set back in 2006. Later in the inning Spencer Shockley singled up the middle scoring Nate Ramler giving MWSU the 2-0 lead after one.
In the second inning, the Griffons got three more runs when Bubba Dotson blasted his 13th homer of the season giving the Griffons a 5-0 lead after two.
In the fourth, Shawn Egge doubled in Jake Schrader and in the fourth Nate Ramler gave Missouri Western a 7-0 lead scoring on a wild pitch.
The Bronchos scored their only run in the sixth when Cameron Mavroulis doubled and scored on a Cesar Wong single cutting the Griffon lead to 7-1.
The Griffons got RBI singles by Egge and Schulze in the eighth giving MWSU a 9-1 lead before the Bronchos got two in the ninth on a Matt Johnson homer cutting the Western lead to 9-3. Logan Hollingsworth came into get the last out with the bases loaded to help MWSU advance.
MWSU’s Brandon Simmons went eight innings giving up just four hits while striking out five. He forced the Bronchos into two double plays and 11 ground outs. He improves to 11-0 on the season.
The Griffons had 12 hits in the game with Schulze getting three and Ramler and Egge each getting two.
Edgar Lopez got the loss going just 2.1 innings giving up eight hits and five earned runs. The Bronchos had eight hits with Wong going 3-for-3. UCO falls to 30-18 on the season.
Missouri Western will play Missouri Southern on Friday, May 10 at 11:00 am at Community America Ballpark and you can listen to the game on ESPN 1550 AM and 1550espn.com.
— MWSU Sports Information —