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Northwest Missouri State baseball splits with Lincoln

Chris Green recorded his 12th-career win on the mound Saturday afternoon ranking him tied for ninth all-time as he led the Northwest Missouri State University baseball team to a 4-2 win in game one of a doubleheader with the Lincoln University Blue Tigers.  The Bearcats would fall 6-4 in game two.

With the split, Northwest now sits at 16-32 overall and 15-23 in the MIAA while the Tigers are now 8-38 overall and 8-29 in conference play.

In game one, Green pitched the entire seven inning contest as he allowed just two earned runs while scattering six hits and striking out a career-high eight batters.

The Blue Tigers scored their only runs of game one in the second inning off of three hits and a Bearcat error.

Northwest would take a 3-2 lead in the fourth as hits from Tyler Durant and Jake Kretzer set the table for Geno DeAngelis to deliver a two-out, two-run single.

The Bearcats added a run in the sixth on a successful squeeze bunt by Landinn Eckhardt.

Cameron Bedard led the Bearcats offensively in game one recording two hits.

Game two saw another stellar pitching performance but this time from Lincoln’s Taylor Klugman as he would record the complete game win.

The Bearcats would jump out to an early 1-0 lead in the first but Lincoln would answer in the second taking the 2-1 advantage.

Northwest tied the game at 2-2 in the sixth thanks to hits from Eric Swain and Steven Garber but the Blue Tiger’s bats would come alive in the eighth as they would plate four unearned runs off of four hits to take the 6-2 advantage.

The Bearcats answered with two runs in the bottom of the eighth but that would be as close as they would get.

Chase Anderson recorded the tough-luck loss on the mound for Northwest pitching 7.2 innings while allowing just one earned run, six hits and striking out six.

Cameron Bedard and Eric McGlauflin recorded two hits each for the Bearcats offensively.

Up Next: The Bearcats and Blue Tigers conclude their four-game series and the 2012 season tomorrow afternoon with a doubleheader from Bearcat Field.  First pitch of game one is slated for noon.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

Griffon softball loses NCAA Tourney opener in extra innings

The Missouri Western softball team fell in a close extra inning battle in the first round of the NCAA Division II South Central Regional against Texas Woman’s University. The Pioneers scored an unearned run in the top of the eighth earning the 4-3 victory. The Griffons fall to 42-12 with the loss. Western will play the loser of Angelo State and St. Edwards University in an elimination game tomorrow at 4:30 pm.

Things started well for the Griffons with Jackie Bishop setting the Pioneers down in order in the first and second innings. Bishop struckout four of the first eight Texas Woman’s batters.

In the bottom half of the first Western used a walk and an error by the Pioneer short stop putting runners on first and third. Western then pulled out the double steel with Blair Stalder stealing second and Bre Fleschner stealing home giving Western the 1-0 lead. Western loaded the bases with two outs but a foul out by Leah Steele ended the Griffons threat.

In the third inning Bishop battled out of a base loaded jam giving up just one run on two hits. Bailey Vrazel singled up the middle which scored pinch runner Haley Leopold from second base. Bishop got Katie Hines to pop up back to her ending the inning.

In the fourth Maegan Roemmich singled up the middle with one out but a ground out by Fleschner and a pop up to right by Sarah Elliott ended the fourth for Western.

In the fifth Bishop got the first two Pioneers out but a single up the middle by Tiffany Weise and homer by Katie Hines gave TWU the 3-1 lead after five and a half. Western answered in their half of the fifth as Stalder led off with single and then scored on a Steele double down the left field line with two outs. Unfortunately Taylor Anding got tossed out at third ending the fifth for Western.

In the top of the sixth inning Bishop got the first batter out and walked Sarah Wittenburg before lightening suspended play at 5:56 pm. When the game resumed at 6:50 pm the Griffons stranded one runner on base heading to the bottom of the sixth inning.

In the sixth pinch hitter Tiffany Gillaspy led off with a double to right center and then scored on a two out single by Sarah Elliott tying the game at three after six. Bishop stranded two Pioneers in the seventh escaping a triple by Addison Staley that went off the glove of Griffon center fielder Kendall Sorenson.

In the seventh for the Griffons, Sorenson hit a one out double to center field but was stranded at second. In the seventh a throwing error by Elliot allowed the Pioneers to take the lead. Western flied out three times in the eighth ending the game.

The Pioneers improve to 37-15 on the year and will take on the winner of Saint Edwards and Angelo State at 2:00 pm tomorrow afternoon.

Western had eight hits with Stalder and Sorenson both getting two hits. Western left 10 runners on base. Jackie Bishop falls to 24-5 on the season as she walked a career high five batters while striking out nine.

The Pioneers had seven hits and also left 10 on base. Vrazel had two hits and one RBI while Katie Hines had two RBI while scoring one run and getting one hit. Larisa Garcia improves to 13-7 on the season walking six and striking out two.

— MWSU Sports Information —

Western baseball beats Fort Hays to clinch MIAA No. 2 seed

The Missouri Western baseball team clinched the second seed in next weekends MIAA Baseball Tournament in Kansas City, Mo. with a 15-1 run rule victory in the series opener against the Fort Hays State Tigers. Western pounded out 14 hits and capitalized on four Tiger errors in the victory. The Griffons improve to 31-14 overall and 24-11 in MIAA play.

Western got a complete game shutout from senior left hander Ethan Ward as he went all seven innings giving up just five hits while striking out five. He gave up one earned run which came in the bottom of the first inning. Ward improved to 6-2 pitching his second complete game of the season.

Western scored runs in five of the final six innings which included a six run third inning and a four run seventh inning.

Of the Griffons 14 hits six of them were doubles with three coming from Michael Schulze. Schulze went 4-for-4 with three doubles, two runs scored and two RBI. Spencer Shockley and Bubba Dotson also ahd two hits for the Griffons. Shawn Egge had three RBI while Tony Loeffler scored two runs and had two RBI.

The Tigers fall to 25-20 on the season and 19-17 in MIAA play. Offensively for the Tigers Nash Smith and Jay Sanders had doubles while Brandon Hoefler knocked in Smith for the Tigers only run of the game. Shawn Lewick falls to 6-4 going 3.2 innings giving up 10 hits and 10 runs with just four being earned.

The two teams will play games two and three tomorrow afternoon with two seven inning games starting at 1:00 pm in Hays, Kan.

— MWSU Sports Information —

KU’s McCay gets eligibility waiver request appeal denied by NCAA

The NCAA Subcommittee for Legislative Relief said Wednesday it has denied Kansas sophomore wide receiver Justin McCay’s eligibility waiver request appeal. With the denial by the subcommittee, McCay will have to sit out the 2012 season and will be eligible to compete for the Jayhawks in 2013 as a junior.

“Today we received notice from the subcommittee that they rejected Justin McCay’s appeal to be able to play immediately,” said Kansas football head coach Charlie Weis. “They informed our compliance officer that there wasn’t that one catastrophic event evident to rule in his favor.

“I’m extremely disappointed that common sense did not prevail. I have read all of the information on this case and it is a shame that this case resulted in a rejection. I cannot release all of the details of Justin’s case as it would be an invasion of his privacy. I can only say that the University of Kansas felt the evidence was overwhelmingly in his favor. I also do not understand why the NCAA had us appeal this case to the subcommittee only to have received the same answer with the same rationale.”

McCay, who received the news Wednesday afternoon, was equally disappointed.

“This is a very disappointing day for me and my family,” said McCay, who transferred to Kansas from Oklahoma in January. “I was very hopeful throughout the process that I would receive a more favorable result, but unfortunately that is not how things turned out.

“I am so grateful to all of the people who worked so hard on my behalf throughout this process. First of all, I would like to thank the compliance staff at KU for all of the effort they put in to submitting my waiver request. I would also like to thank the Athletics Director at the University of Oklahoma, Joe Castiglione, for his assistance and support. Lastly, I would like to thank Coach Weis, the entire KU staff and all of my teammates in supporting me during this process. It was a long, difficult process, and I truly appreciate all of the support they gave me along the way.

“Despite the disappointment I am feeling today, I have no regrets. I am very happy to be at Kansas and I am going to go out and work hard every day to be the best teammate I can be. Even though I won’t be playing in games this year I am going to take advantage of every opportunity I have to improve as a player.”

— KU Sports Information —

Missouri Western moves up to No. 20 in AFCA Top 25

The Missouri Western softball team (42-11) moved up one spot to 20th in the lastest NFCA Division II Softball Coaches poll. The Griffons went 4-2 last week in the MIAA tournament before falling against 17th ranked Emporia State 6-5 in the championship game.

This week the Griffons will be in San Angelo, Texas participating in the South Central Region 1 four team tournament. The Griffons are the #4 seed and will play the #5 seed Pioneers of Texas Women’s University on Friday, May 4 at 4:30 pm.

— MWSU Sports Information —

Northwest tennis falls to Abilene Christian in NCAA first round

For the second consecutive season the No. 16 Northwest Missouri State men’s tennis team came to an end in the first round of the NCAA Tournament falling to No. 6 Abilene Christian, 5-0 Tuesday at the Eager Tennis Center.

The Bearcats (19-5) came into Tuesday’s match looking for their first regional title and trip to the Round of 16 since 2007. However, Northwest ran into a Wildcat (20-8) team playing its best tennis and fell one win shy of winning 20 matches. Of the eight losses for ACU, only one came at the hands of a NCAA Division II opponent playing a schedule heavily loaded with NCAA-DI teams.

With both teams battling strong winds gusting upwards to 30 mph it was the home team that found the right ingredients to pull off the win.

Opening doubles play ACU raced out to an early 3-0 lead by sweeping all three matches.

Since returning from injury, Calvin Patterson teamed with Luis Altimires to go undefeated on the second half of the season. However, on Tuesday the luck for the Bearcat duo ran out as Michael Morris and Guilherme Gesser battled to a 9-7 win at No. 3 doubles.

No. 2 doubles was just as hard fought however Northwest came out on the short end again falling 8-5, while the No. 1 doubles team of Mario Jakovljevic and Jose Ortega fell 8-4.

Needing only two points to claim the win heading into singles play, ACU turned to the No. 6 ranked singles player in the nation, Hans Hach. Hach defeated Patterson at No. 1 singles, 6-3, 6-2 to push the Wildcats one point away from the victory.

The Wildcats finished the match at No. 3 singles when Nick Plum won 6-4, 6-1 over Rafael Bugiga giving the top ranked team a 5-0 win.

The loss brings an end to a historic season for the Bearcats that saw head coach Mark Rosewell claim his 800th career win March 31 in Tulsa, Okla., a 5-0 win over Dallas Baptist.

It also marks the end of a stellar career for the Bearcats’ lone senior Calvin Patterson. Patterson finishes his career at Northwest with the second most singles wins in program history at 82-20 and fifth most career wins in doubles at 59-23.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

Griffon football seeks Week 2 opponent after Central State backs out

Saturday, September 8th once again has an opening on the 2012 Missouri Western football schedule as expected opponent Central State from Ohio has backed out of their commitment.

The penalty for backing out of the game is $50,000.

“It’s disappointing that Central State has backed out of their commitment.  They had a chance to play a FCS school (Northern Iowa) on the same date and made the decision that they will do so,” said MWSU Director of Athletics Kurt McGuffin.  “Scheduling for us is extremely difficult especially with the success of our team and will be even more challenging at this late date.”

“We are actively seeking another opponent and hopeful that we will fill the opening and would prefer to do so with a home game at Spratt Stadium,” McGuffin said.

Go to gogriffons.com for all of the latest Griffon football schedule updates.

— MWSU Sports Information —

Northwest baseball splits with Washburn Monday

The Northwest Missouri State University baseball team split with the Washburn University Ichabods Monday winning game one in walk-off fashion, 9-8, before falling 7-5 in game two.

With the split, Northwest now sits at 15-31 overall and 14-22 in conference play.  The game two loss officially eliminated the Bearcats from the post-season MIAA tournament.

Game one saw Jake Kretzer cap a six run, seventh inning rally by belting a walk-off grand slam to give the Bearcats the 9-8 win.

Washburn had jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the second before Northwest answered with two runs of their own in the third on Eric Swain’s tenth home run of the season.

The Ichabods extended their lead in the sixth plating two runs on two hits to take the 5-2 advantage.

Charlie Krueger would pinch-hit in the sixth and plate Kretzer to cut the Washburn lead to two.

Washburn rallied in the seventh extending their lead to 8-3 but the Bearcat bats would get hot in the home half of the seventh as Cameron Bedard would start the hitting with a double to right-center.  Eric Swain would follow with a single through the right side and then Eric McGlauflin would single plating Bedard cutting the Ichabod lead to 8-4.  Tyler Durant would reach base via a hit-by-pitch followed by a Steven Garber single scoring Swain.  With the bases loaded, Jake Kretzer would belt his seventh home run, and first grand slam, of the season to center field giving the Bearcats the 9-8 win.

McGlauflin and Kretzer led the Bearcats offensively in game one with each recording three hits.

Josh Parrish recorded the win on the mound for Northwest pitching two innings of relief.

The Ichabods again jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in game two plating three runs in the top of the second.

Northwest would get on the board in the fifth as Steven Garber, Landinn Eckhardt, JJ Baccari and Cameron Bedard would all record hits helping plate two runs for the Bearcats.

The Bearcats added a run in the sixth thanks to hits from McGaluflin and Garber tying the score at 3-3.

The Ichabods and Bearcats would trade runs in the seventh before the Ichabods would go ahead in the eighth plating three runs off of two hits to take the 7-4 lead.

Northwest would get one run back in the eighth and load the bases in the ninth but were unable to come from behind once again.

Carson Smith suffered the loss on the mound in game two pitching 7.2 innings allowing ten hits and striking out four.

Offensively, Eric Swain and Garber recorded two this apiece in the loss.

Up Next: The Bearcats will host the Lincoln Blue Tigers in a four-game series to conclude the 2012 season.  First pitch of game one is set for Friday at 2 p.m. from Bearcat Field.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

Missouri Western selected to sixth NCAA Tournament in school history

The NCAA Division II Softball Committee has selected the 64 teams that will participate in the 2012 NCAA Division II Softball Regional Championships. Four teams will participate at each of 16 regional sites in double-elimination tournaments. Regional competition will be held May 4-6. Winners will advance to the super regional’s May 11-12. The finals will be held May 16-19 at Knights Field in Louisville, Kentucky, and will be hosted by Bellarmine University and the Louisville Sports Commission.

For the sixth time in eight years (2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2012) the Missouri Western softball team will be heading to the NCAA Division II National Tournament. The Griffons (42-11) are the fourth seed and will play in San Angelo, Texas on Friday, May 4 at 5:30 pm against Texas Woman’s University (36-15) who is the five seed. This is the third time in four years that the Griffons have been to the South Central Regional.

The other two teams that are in the Griffons region are the host school and number one seed Angelo State (44-9) and the eight seed St. Edwards (29-19).

Four other schools will be going to Edmond, Oklahoma to play their double elimination tournament. Central Oklahoma (38-5) the number two seed will play Incarnate Word (29-23) the seventh seed while the three seed Emporia State Hornets (39-9) will take on the sixth seeded Abilene Christian Wildcats (29-16).

— MWSU Sports Information —

Kellogg signs first recruit to Northwest Missouri State

Northwest Missouri State head women’s basketball coach, Mark Kellogg, has announced his first signee for the 2012-13 season with the addition of Monique Stevens from Southeast Community College in Beatrice, Nebraska.

Stevens is the first to sign with the Bearcats in the new Kellogg era as the All-America guard led the Storm in scoring and assists the last two years at Southeast (SCC). She led the Storm to a District Championship and first ever national tournament appearance as a sophomore averaging 13.0 points per game and 5.0 assists.

“We are thrilled to add Monique to the Bearcat family,” Kellogg said. “Monique is our first signee this spring and she will really help solidify our point guard position. We hope that her experience at the junior college level will translate quickly at Northwest. She has a tremendous feel as a point guard and she plays with a great passion defensively.”

Along with leading SCC to an eighth place finish at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Tournament, she set the school record for most assists in a career. She earned All-Conference and All-Region accolades and was also named to the NJCAA All-Tournament Team.

Prior to SCC, Stevens prepped in Australia at Catholic College – Wodonga in Wodonga, Victoria, Australia, where she helped the Wolves to a third place state finish. She won three consecutive gold medals at the Australian National Schools Basketball Tournament and represented Victoria Country at the Australian Junior Country Cup where her under-18 team captured the silver medal.

Stevens joins Tember Schechinger who was signed in early November from IKM-Manning High in Manilla, Iowa. The pair of guards will join a Bearcat squad that lost two 1,000-point guards in Abby Henry and Shelly Martin.

— NWMSU Sports Information —

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