Eagles Split With Spartans in Saturday Tilt

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The Williams baseball team split its doubleheader with the Missouri Baptist Spartans on Saturday to salvage a game in the series. Williams dropped game one 14-13 in eight innings and took game two 6-5. The Eagles are now 17-15 overall and 3-6 in conference play.

Game One

The Eagles jumped out to a 5-0 lead in first off a Dezmond Cordova RBI single, Nick Allred's 2 RBI single, and Jarron Brantley's 2 RBI single. The Spartans would respond with 3 runs in the first, 2 runs in the second to tie it at five, and then five runs in the third to take a 10-5 advantage. Williams got four runs back in the fourth off a RBI groundout from Cordova, Blake Simmons scoring on a passed ball, Allred hitting a RBI single, and Sam Philley reaching on an error that allowed Allred to score. MBU pushed their lead back out to two runs with a run in the bottom of the fourth. Cordova tied the game at 11 with a 2 RBI double in the fifth. The Spartans would retake the lead with a run in the bottom of the fifth, and again the Eagles would respond and tie the game in the top of sixth off a RBI bunt single from Brantley. It was all tied after seven, so they went to extra innings, and in the top of the eighth, Philley hit a solo shot to give the Eagles a lead, but the Spartans walked it off in the home half of the inning off a RBI single and then the winning run came home off an error.

Brady Sterns pitched 2.1 innings and gave up eight runs off six hits and walked six. Blaine Wood pitched 0.2 of an inning in relief and gave up two runs off four hits. Alex O'Brien pitched 3.0 innings of relief and gave up two runs off three hits, walked one and struck out one. Blake Simmons pitched 1.1 innings of relief and gave up two runs off one hit, walked two and struck out one. Simmons got credited with the loss. 

Game Two

MBU scored two runs in the first and second innings to take an early 4-0 lead over the Eagles. They got one run back off a RBI single from Isaac Williams in the fifth inning. The Spartans pushed their lead back up to four in the home half of the inning. Williams scored two runs in the sixth when Allred reached on an error that allowed Cordova to score and Palmer Campbell hit a RBI single. They took the lead with three runs in the seventh when Cameron McCoy scored on a wild pitch and Nicholas Jones hit a 2 RBI single, and that proved to be the game winning run. 

Ray Ochoa pitched 5.0 innings and gave up five runs off eight hits, walked three and struck out four. Eric Tolar pitched 2.0 innings of relief and walked two while striking out three. Tolar got credit for the win. 

Up Next

The Eagles travel to Ouachita Baptist in Arkadelphia, Ark. on Tuesday, April 5 for a doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.