(BOLIVAR, Mo., April 16)—The McKendree University baseball team stepped out of conference on Tuesday for a doubleheader at Southwest Baptist University. Host Southwest Baptist swept McKendree in a battle of the Bearcats, grabbing the 15-1 in game one before holding off a late McKendree rally in the nightcap, 5-3.
McKendree will return home to host Missouri S&T in a three-game Great Lakes Valley Conference series this weekend. The Bearcats and Miners are slated to play a doubleheader on Friday before finishing up with a single contest on Saturday. First pitch both days will occur at noon.
In game two, McKendree (9-28) used back-to-back homers in the top of the first to take a 2-0 lead. With one out, senior outfielder
Drew Reich (Charlestown, IN/Charlestown) belted his second first-inning homer of the day – a solo shot over the center field fence – to give the Bearcats an early lead. Freshman outfielder
Hayden Schaefer (O'Fallon, IL/O'Fallon) stepped in next and drilled a homer to left field to push the McKendree lead to two. Southwest Baptist (15-23) answered with a two-run homer in the bottom of the first to knot the contest at 2-2. The hosts then added a tally in the bottom of the second to take a 3-2 lead.
In the top of the fifth inning, McKendree put together a rally to tie things at 3-3. Schaefer singled with one out, moved to second base on a balk and scored thanks to a two-out RBI single off the bat of senior outfielder
Corey Chambliss (St. Louis, MO/Oakville). Southwest Baptist regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the sixth to take a 5-3 lead into the top of the seventh.
Schaefer was hit by a pitch to open the McKendree half of the seventh inning and proceeded to steal second base. Chambliss drew a walk to put the tying runs on base, but Southwest Baptist was able to record the final out to finish off the sweep.
McKendree jumped out to a 1-0 lead just three batters into the opener at Southwest Baptist. Reich drove a pitch over the left-center field fence to provide the Bearcats with an early advantage. The lead was short-lived as Southwest Baptist plated a run in the bottom of the first to tie the score at 1-1. The hosts then took the lead for good with four runs in the bottom of the second and slowly increased their advantage over their final four at-bats to claim victory in game one.
With his two home runs on Tuesday, Reich extended his team lead in round trippers to nine.
