COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The William Woods University baseball team's 2014 home opener has been relocated yet again, as they will play its fourth game of the week at Hickman High School in Columbia, Mo., with a contest against Central Methodist University on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m.
William Woods (12-2) will be stepping out of American Midwest Conference action on Sunday after taking two of three against Hannibal-LaGrange University in its AMC season-opening series earlier this week. The Owls won game one 11-0 on Thursday behind a complete game one-hit shutout by Dane Smith. WWU split a doubleheader with the Trojans on Friday afternoon, as HLGU won game two 9-8 in walk-off fashion, but William Woods was able to recover in game three by shutting out Hannibal-LaGrange for the second time in the series taking the 9-0 win to win the rubber game of the series.
Central Methodist University (4-5) will be playing its first game in 14 days, as they have not competed since the final game of the Joplin Tournament back on Feb. 23. The Eagles suffered a 14-4 defeat to Doane College to conclude play in the tournament. CMU went 3-2 that weekend, as they defeated Viterbo University (5-4), Clarke University (16-7), and Waldorf College (7-3) and had set backs against Grand View University (7-4) and Doane College. William Woods also played in the Joplin Tournament that weekend and defeated Grand View and Waldorf, but spilt a pair of games against Viterbo.
The Owls are coming off a big offensive series against Hannibal-LaGrange, as they posted 28 runs on 29 hits in the three-game series.
Matt Thomas had a monster series for William Woods, as the senior drove in a remarkable 10 runs in the three-game set. Thomas went 8-of-13 at the plate and collected four extra-base hits with a home run and three doubles. The lefty did most of his damage in the two wins for WWU, by going 4-for-5 with a home run and four RBI's in the game one win, and then went 2-for-4 with five RBI's on a pair of doubles in game three's victory. The big performance has elevated Thomas near the top of the team's RBI list with 14, trailing team leader Zach Nichols by two.
Cody Stewart also had a big three-game series against the Trojans, as the centerfielder went 6-of-11 with six RBI's and added a stolen base. Stewart drove in a pair of runs in each game of the AMC season-opening series, giving him 10 on the year.
The Central Methodist offense is led by T.J. Singh. Through nine games, the senior leads the club in batting average (.406), hits (13), and RBI's (14). The Canadian native has slugged three home runs on the year, with two coming against Central Baptist in the season-opener.
Ian Walsh has been dominant in his first two starts of the year for the Eagles with his 1.00 ERA in two starts, but he has yet to pick up a win on the year. Walsh has allowed just one run in his nine innings of work, and has struck out six along the way. As a team, Central Methodist is hitting .291 on the year.
CMU has had four pitchers make at least two starts this season, with Jeff King and Tyler Paule each picking up a win in one of their starts. As a team, the Eagles hold a staff ERA of 7.04, as they have allowed 48 runs in 61.1 innings this season.
This will be the first time these two schools have met since the 2012 season. That year the teams spilt a two-game series, but its William Woods holding the all-time series lead 18-11.
Check back with wwuowls.com for a full recap of this and every game during the 2014 season.
