SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The No. 3 seeded William Woods University baseball team used an offensive outburst of recording 14 hits, to collect a 9-5 victory over the No. 8 seeded Williams Baptist College on Saturday morning.
 
William Woods (37-11; 19-7 AMC), used a five run rally in the fifth, along with a strong performance from the bullpen helped the Owls move on to the next game in the AMC tournament, which will be against the winner of Free-Hardeman University and Lindenwood-Belleville. The first pitch is set for 8:00 p.m. tonight.
 
The Owl offense got started early, after a one out triple off the bat from Nick Spagnola, putting him 90 feet away from scoring for WWU leading RBI hitter. Cody Stewart came through as he has all season, by driving in Spagnola for the team's first run on the day and giving the Owls the quick 1-0 lead over the Eagles.
 
Next inning, WWU added two more runs to its lead, with a big home run from Jordan Dey over the left field fence and after a Larry Price single and WBC error the Owls had another runner on third base but this time for Spagnola up at bat. Spagnola hit a hard ground ball to shortstop to score Price, making the score 3-0.
 
The Owls offensive outburst continued as the team plated a five runs in the fifth on six hits, giving the team a 8-0 advantage. The offensive output was more than enough for William Woods starting pitching Adam Brush, who kept the eagles scoreless for four complete innings, as the senior tossed five innings of four hits, four run ball to collect his first win on the season.
 
The Eagles were able to put its first run on the board in the top of the fifth with a Nick Scott RBI single to shallow right-center, making the score 8-1. Then in the next inning, WBC added three more runs on three hits, which one of those hits was a two run home run from Eric Kent, as it ended the day for Brush, making the score 8-4 still in the Owls favor.
 
William Woods bullpen provided the team with another strong performance, as the combination of Caleb Bounds, Dustin Kremer and James Ball allowed just one run in the last three innings, to go on to secure the 9-5 victory over WBC to advance in the tournament.
 
The Owls collected 14 hits on the day, as three of them came from the bat of Austin Clapp, who led the team going 3-for-4 from the plate and driving in two RBI's. WWU top three hitters, Price, Spagnola and Stewart each recorded a pair of hits, while Stewart also plated two RBI's.
 
WBC collected five hits on the day, as Dalton Freshour suffered the loss for the Eagles last game of its 2015 season.
 
In hopes of advancing in the tournament after the completion of the 8:00 p.m. game, the Owls will be playing in the semi-final game, one game closer to bring home the AMC tournament title.
 
Fans check back wwuowls.com later tonight for a full recap and score of tonight's action.

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