Spartans Split with Fighting Bees

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – After a rocky seventh inning for the Missouri Baptist University baseball team in a game one loss, the team was picked-up by a strong, complete game pitching effort by David Williams, as the team went on to a 2-1 victory in game two.

Missouri Baptist started off game one strong as it looked for a big win on opening day. Playing to a large crowd on a cold windy afternoon, the team looked sharp early. Spartan starter Bunk Coronado recorded four strikeouts in just three innings of work. As the junior continued to deal through three, the team got on the board in the bottom of the third.

The Spartan’s starting catcher, Todd Glime, led off the inning and scored on an RBI single off the bat of shortstop, Patrick Johnson. After a wild throw by Zach Rolfe, Joe Riley and Johnson came around to score, giving the home team a 3-0 advantage.

The Fighting Bees got one back in the top half of the fourth after MBU’s Julien Soucy hit SAU’s Scott Blanchette, scoring Matt Rosenberger. This was the only run that Soucy gave up.

Late in the fourth, Missouri Baptist turned to Aaron Matula to shut the door and he did just that. The senior came in and threw 2.1 innings of one-hit ball, striking out two, to help give the Spartans a 4-1 lead heading into the top-half of the seventh.

Missouri Baptist reliever, Kevin Ellis came to the mound to shut the door on Saint Ambrose, but had his share of difficulty in front of the home crowd. Ellis hit two batters and recorded a balk before being pulled in favor of lefty, Matt Mundfrom. All in all, the Spartans gave up five runs in the inning, which was the difference in the 6-4 loss.

Game two, while less eventful, went in a much different direction. Spartan starter David Williams had a no hitter through three innings and didn’t allow a run until the seventh, giving up a double and two consecutive fielder’s choices to score a run.

MBU’s Yeriel Nieves opened-up the scoring in game two with a triple to right field and scored on a wild throw to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead. Shortstop Patrick Johnson would score in the following inning thanks to a Kyle Turner RBI to center field. That is all it took for the team to collect its second win of the season. Williams went on to finish the game, while throwing just over 100 pitches.

Missouri Baptist will now prepare for a full weekend schedule of home games, commencing on Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. against Iowa Wesleyan.