Doubleheader sweep helps C-SC baseball team enjoy best start since 2020 season

QUINCY — The Culver-Stockton College baseball team is off to its best start since the 2020 season after taking three of four games in a weekend series against the University of Indiana-South Bend.

The Wildcats swept a non-conference doubleheader on Sunday afternoon at Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield. Garrett Hogard struck out eight and allowed three runs in 5 2/3 innings in an 8-5 victory in the second game. Jordan Scott hit a two-run two-out homer in the bottom of the sixth to rally the Wildcats to a 9-8 victory in the first game.

Jaison Andujar hit a three-run home run to help C-SC take a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the second in the first game. Starter Cole Parkhill pitched five innings, allowing two runs, as the Wildcats eventually took a 7-2 lead.

Reliever Gavin Reames allowed six hits and six runs in the top of the sixth, but Scott grabbed the last back for the Wildcats (6-6) in the bottom of the frame. A walk and a hit batter put the tying and winning runs on base for IU-South Bend, but Isaiah Naylor induced a fielder’s choice, a popout and strikeout to end the game and earn a save.

Culver-Stockton raced to an 8-1 lead after four innings in the second game. Andujar hit a home run to lead off the bottom of the first, and Ryan Osso hit a sacrifice fly to put the hosts ahead for good in the second inning.

Run-scoring singles by Scott and Jeremiah Morris, along with a bases-loaded walk to Andujar, put C-SC ahead 5-1 in the third. The Wildcats scored three more runs in the fourth on an RBI double by Morris and a two-run error by the IU-South Bend third baseman.

C-SC, which has won five of its last six, started the weekend with a doubleheader split with IU-South Bend on Saturday, winning 9-8 in nine innings and losing 7-5.

The C-SC baseball team that started 6-6 in 2020 finished 7-11 because the rest of the season was canceled because of the COVID pandemic. The Wildcats haven’t had a winning record since the 2014 season.