The NCAA Division-2 Baseball Championships started with three teams from the state of Missouri. Now, after Friday’s game, there are just two.
Missouri Western bounced back from its opening round loss to beat Central Missouri State 16-8. The Griffons helped themselves tremendously by hitting a season-high six home runs in the game. Missouri Western will face Minnesota State-Mankato today in another elimination game. CMSU finishes their season 44-16.
Mules slugger Adam Milauskas gave his team a 3-0 lead in the first inning when he hit a three-run homer off Western starter Justin Parrish. The Griffons wasted little time erasing the deficit. They tied the game at three on back-to-back home runs in the second by Mark Newton and Kellen Hobbie.
Western really separated themselves by scoring seven runs in the fifth inning. Two more homers in the inning, one by Willie Forrest and one by Justin Coffman, gave the Griffons a 12-6 lead. They never looked back.
Reliever Clint Gilliland got his fourth win of the year pitching six innings of relief.
The third team from Missouri, Rockhurst University, extended their season beating Northern Kentucky 4-1. The Hawks scored one run in the third after a throwing error by the third baseman allowed Zach Trolio to score.
They added three more in the fourth that pretty much put the game away. Tyler Knust led the way in the inning with a two-run single.
Northern Kentucky trailed the whole game and didn’t score its only run until the ninth inning.
Andrew Silver earned the win for the Hawks.
Rockhurst plays Quincy College today at 1pm.