WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Great pitching, solid defense and clutch hitting kept Griffon Baseball's (29-23) season alive as Missouri Western eliminated MIAA Co-Champion Northwest Missouri (30-22) from the MIAA Championships with a 4-0 victory.
 
Jacob Miller, Kellan Richards and Preston Bailey combined to shutout the postseason tournament's No. 2 seed. The sixth-seeded Griffons scored two, two-out runs in the bottom of the fifth, getting two-out RBIs from Nick Scharanck and Fahd Shakeel. Missouri Western added two more in the eighth started by a leadoff solo home run to left by Shakeel. Dusty Stroup drove in the Griffons' fourth run in the eighth on a fielder's choice. Shakeel finished the game 3-for-4 and finished the game with five hits through the Griffons first two postseason games.
 
Miller (9-2) got the win, pitching 6 2/3. He held Northwest to five hits while striking out four. Kellan Richards came in with two out in the seventh and the bases full of Bearcats. He induced a fly ball to right that ended the threat. Bailey pitched a perfect eighth and ninth, striking out the side in the final frame, to earn his seventh save of the season.
 
Missouri Western will play at 9 a.m. again on Saturday against the loser of Friday's No. 3 Central Missouri-No. 7 Emporia State game.