WARRENSBURG, Mo. — After leading for 5.5 innings vs. No. 18/12-ranked Central Missouri, Griffon Baseball fell 10-5 due to a six-run seventh inning for the Mules on Tuesday night at James R. Crane Stadium.
Taking an early lead for the Missouri Western,
Hunter Rumachik kickstarted the scoring in the top of the second with an RBI single through the right side to plate
Will Courtney. Rumachik notched another RBI with a groundout shortstop in the fourth, allowing
Hunter Olson to score. The Mules (28-10, 19-5 MIAA) made it a 2-1 game in the bottom half of the frame with a sacrifice fly, but MWSU immediately responded in the fifth.
Courtney walked with the bases loaded to bring in
Jerry Nix, and a
Jared Munk groundout into a double play still scored
Brenden Andersen, pushing MWSU's lead to 4-1. After two UCM solo home runs in the bottom of the frame, a
Jared Munk RBI single to right on a 1-2 count brought home Andersen, padding the lead to 5-3. Now in the seventh, the Mules then preceded to tally five hits, force two errors and hit their third homer of the game, blowing up for six runs to take a 9-5 lead.
A Chase Wilcox RBI single in the eighth pushed UCM's lead to 10-5, putting MWSU in a difficult spot in the ninth. The Griffons went one-two-three in the final frame of the game to close out a contest they led in for the majority of the night.
NOTABLES
- Hunter Rumachik returned for his first game since March 24. He went 1-for-4 with two RBI and scored two runs.
- Tied with Munk, Courtney led the Griffons in hits, going 2-for-3 with one RBI and one run scored.
- Munk went 2-for-4 with one RBI and a run scored as well.
UP NEXT
The Griffons (9-27, 6-18 MIAA) next begin a three-game series at home vs. Fort Hays State (17-24, 7-17 MIAA) starting this Friday at 4 p.m. in St. Joseph at the Spring Sports Complex. The Tigers just won a one-off matchup vs. Newman in 4-2 fashion at home in Hays, Kansas.
