KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The Bearcats hit the road for a conference series at Truman State University on April 4th through the 6th. After dropping the first game of the series on Friday 14-11, McKendree bounced back to win the last three games of the series by the score of 3-1, 9-5 and 18-3.
Game 1 – Friday, April 4th
The Bearcats and Bulldogs opening game of the series turned into a slug fest with a 45-minute rain delay. McKendree opened the scoring with a Noah Shuman 2-run home run in the top of the 2nd. During the third and fourth innings, TSU scored 10 unanswered runs, including nine in the bottom of the 4th. McKendree cut the lead to five with three of their own in top of the 5th. Peyton Bittle used a sacrifice fly to score Hunter Sherman. A couple of batters later, Kaid Muth laced a two RBI double that scored Chyran Cruse and Harrison Toone that made it 10-5.
As the game moved to the eighth, the Bulldogs extended the lead back to 13-5. McKendree did not go away quietly as Isaiah Hoelscher and Sherman hit home runs to make it a five-run game once again. Bittle followed those up with an RBI double to make it 13-9. Both Javy Garcia and Kaid Muth reached base to put McKendree within two at 13-11. TSU added an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th.
Game 2 – Saturday, April 5th
The opening game on Saturday would turn into a pitchers' duel. TSU got on the board first with an RBI groundout in the bottom half of the opening inning. With both starting pitchers having success getting hitters out, McKendree tied the game with a Shuman RBI double in the top of the 5th.
The game would require extra baseball. With runners at the corners, the TSU hurler uncorked a wild pitch past his catcher to let Sage McMinn score the go-ahead run. Two batters later, TSU threw another wild pitch to let Max Meuli come home for an insurance run.
Trey Cole got the start and went distance for McKendree, striking out six, allowing four hits, one run and walking one.
Game 3 – Saturday, April 5th
TSU got the scoring started for the second game with an RBI single in the bottom of the 2nd. Hunter Sherman answered right back with an RBI double to score Toone in top of the 3rd. In the fourth, McMinn came home on a TSU wild pitch put the Bearcats up 2-1. The inning was not done as Chyran Cruse mashed a 2-run home run to make it 4-1 in favor of McKendree.
TSU scored three of their own to tie the contest at 4 in the bottom of the 5th. As the game moved to the top of the 6th, Muth hit his first of two home runs in the game to put McKendree back up 5-4. Truman State tied the game once more in the bottom half of the inning and that would force free baseball for the second time in as many games.
In the top of the 8th, Kaid Muth led off the inning with a solo home run to make it 6-5. With the bases loaded, Sherman used a sacrifice fly to shallow center field that scored the pinch runner, Jack Taulman to make it 7-5. Bittle gave McKendree a couple more insurance runs with a 2-RBI triple that scored Toone and Cruse.
Bryce Humphrey improved to 2-0 out of the bullpen throwing 3.2 innings, only allowing one run and two hits.
Game 4 – Sunday, April 6th
In the final game of the series, Truman struck twice in the bottom of the 2nd. Meuli hit an RBI single in the top of the 2nd to make it a 2-1 game. Sherman scored on a wild pitch in the top of the 3rd to tie the game at two. Garcia hit an RBI single to score Bittle which gave McKendree the lead.
In the next inning, Sherman hit a 2-RBI single to score Toone and Meuli which extended the lead to 5-2. McMinn got in the offense with an RBI single of his own to make it 6-2. In the top of the 5th, Shuman hit a 2-run home run that scored Muth which made it 8-2. In the top of the 6th, McKendree struck for six runs to put the game out of reach. The inning included a McMinn RBI single, and Cruse RBI single and a Meuli 3-run home run. With the game in run-rule territory, Bittle hit a solo home run in the top of the 7th to make it 15-2. Shuman added more runs for the Bearcats with a 3-run blast to bring Muth and Garcia home.
Adam Keeney improved to 3-3 on the year going six innings, striking out nine, only allowing one hits and two runs, both of which were unearned.
For the series, McKendree outscored the Bulldogs 41-23 with 10 home runs and hit .364.
