BOLIVAR, Mo. – Looking for their first win in the young 2024 season, the McKendree University Bearcats traveled to Southwest Baptist University for a non-conference four-game series on Friday, February 23rd and 24th. McKendree would claim the series three games to one, including head coach Tim Gurnow's first career coaching win in game one of the series. McK swept Friday's doubleheader with scores of 10-8 and 14-5. The two team split Saturday's games with McKendree taking the nightcap 17-10 and SBU taking game three of the series 13-12.
Game 1
McKendree's offense got to work in the top of the 3rd inning as Noah Nelson singled to center that brought home Chryan Cruse. A few batters later, Kyle Czarnecki roped a double to left center to bring Nelson around which made it 2-0. Czarnecki would score on a wild pitch that made it 3-0.
In the 4th, Brandon Roth led off the inning with a solo home run. Harrison Toone doubled to left center that made it 5-0 when Brody Macak came around to score. After SBU scored two in the bottom of the 4th, McKendree made it five run ball game again with a Mack two RBI double that scored Roth and Michael Paule.
SBU made it a one run ball game going into the ninth. With two outs in the top of the 9th, Roth hit his 2nd home run of the game, this time a two-run blast to make it 9-6. Cruse capped off the McKendree scoring with an RBI single to center field. SBU homered in the bottom of the 9th to give us the final of 10-8.
With this win, head coach Tim Gurnow collected his first win of his coaching career.
Game 2
McKendree jumped on SBU quick in the 1st inning of the nightcap on Friday. Brody Macak, the fifth batter of the game, doubled to left field, scoring Kyle Czarnecki and Joey Kossina to make it 2-0. The next batter, Chryan Cruse, singled to left as well to score Macak and Brandon Roth which made it 4-0. Harrison Toone rounded out the scoring in the inning by reaching on an error that score Cruse.
McKendree put up another five spot in the top of the 3rd on five more hits. Cruse singled to right field that scored Macak. Two batters later, Noah Nelson doubled to left field for an RBI. Toone made it 8-1 with an RBI double of his own. Czarnecki collected the third RBI double of the inning to make it 9-1 McKendree. Michael Paule made it 10-1 with a sac fly to left field.
Czanecki continued his big game as he sent a three-run home run to make it 13-4. Macak finished the scoring for McKendree in the game on a sac fly to center.
Game 3
Through one inning of play, SBU led 2-1. The McKendree bats went back to work in the 2nd and 3rd innings scoring a combined 10 runs. During the top of the 2nd, Joey Kossina hit a sac fly to tie the game at 2. Czarnecki made it 4-2 with a two RBI double to center field that scored Toone and Nelson. In the top top of the 3rd, Nelson made it 6-2 with a 2-run home run to straight away center field. After taking advantages of some SBU miscues that made it 9-2, Macak capped off the inning with a 2 RBI single to left field that made it 11-2.
McKendree's last run of the contest came on a Kossina sac fly that made it 12-4. SBU chipped away at the lead. In the bottom of the 7th with one out, SBU hit a walk off grand slam for the 13-12 final.
Game 4
The final game of the series was an offensive slugfest between the two GLVC schools. It started as a low scoring game with Roth doubling to left field in the top of the 1st to make it 1-0. After a ground out by Czarnecki made it 2-0, Roth doubled to left field that scored Paule to make it 3-0.
The offense become fun in the top of the 4th as Czarnecki singled to left field for two RBIs that msde it 5-1. Paule blasted a 3-run home run to left field which gave McKendree a seven run cushion. SBU cut the game to 8-4 with three runs in the bottom of the 4th.
More miscues by the SBU defense led to two runs and a 10-4 lead before Roth doubled to center field for two more RBIs that made it 12-4. Southwest Baptist made it a 12-10 after six runs in the 6th and 7th innings.
The McKendree bats did more damage in the top of the 8th putting up another 5 spot on six hits. They used three extra-base hits and two singles to score the runs and finish the scoring at 17-10.
McKendree will have its home opener on Wednesday, February 29th against Westminster (Mo.) College with first pitch scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
