C-SC baseball team rallies twice, now in position to clinch conference tournament bid next weekend

CANTON, Mo. — The Culver-Stockton baseball team came from behind in both ends of Saturday’s Heart of America Athletic Conference doubleheader with Missouri Valley College to earn a sweep of the twinbill and win the four-game series.

The Wildcats scored three runs each in the fifth and sixth innings to overcome a 5-0 deficit to post a 6-5 victory in the first game. In the second game, C-SC trailed 2-0 after one inning but plated single runs in the second, third and fourth innings, and then added two more fifth to pick up a 5-1 decision.

The sweep vaulted the Wildcats into a seventh-place tie with Peru State in the Heart standings with a 12-16 league mark, putting them two games in front of Clarke. The top eight teams qualify for the conference tournament. Only four games remain on the conference slate, and C-SC will play them on April 25-26 at Benedictine (9-19 in league play).

The Wildcats were held hitless and scoreless for the first four innings in Saturday’s opener by Vikings hurler Mason Chamberlain. However, C-SC finally solved Chamberlain in the fifth. It started with singles by Jeremiah Morris and Jackson Day. After a popout, Wyatt Wright doubled to left-center field to score Morris and sending Day to third.

Chamberlain was removed from the game in favor of reliever Tyler Brakensie. Noble Oxford hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Day and move Wright to third. Kannon Kirk was intentionally walked, and a wild pitch by Brakensie allowed Wright to score, making the score 5-3.

After C-SC reliever Garrett Hogard retired the Vikings in order in the top of the sixth, the Wildcats kept the momentum going in the bottom of the sixth inning. Jordan Scott walked and moved to second on a balk. Day delivered a RBI single to score Scott to bring C-SC to within 5-4. The next batter, Ryan Osso, was hit by a pitch, and Wright followed with a RBI single to score pinch runner Kevin Mueller and tie the game.

Osso and Wright moved up to second and third. Oxford was intentionally walked, and after a nine-pitch at-bat, Kirk walked to force Osso home with the go-ahead run.

Hogard walked the first two batters he faced in the seventh, and Isaiah Naylor came on. A failed double steal led to the first out, and a fly ball to right was the second out. Naylor hit a batter to put runners at first and second, but he recorded a strikeout to end the game.

C-SC starter Josh Martini allowed three hits in the first inning of the second game but didn’t allow another until the seventh.

Trailing 2-0 after one inning, C-SC cut the lead in half in the second inning when Morris doubled to center and Osso tripled down the right-field line. An error on a possible double play allowed C-SC to score the tying run in the third. Wright gave the Wildcats the lead for good in the fourth inning when he tripled with one out and scored on a wild pitch to make the score 3-2.

C-SC added two more runs in the fifth inning when Morris and Day singled with one out and Oxford doubled down the left-field line.