FULTON, Mo. – The William Woods University baseball team returns home this weekend to host Missouri Baptist University in American Midwest Conference (AMC) action. The Owls and Spartans will square off in a three game set at Owl Field. The Owls and Spartans will play a doubleheader on Friday, March 11
th and one single game on Saturday, March 12
th.
The Owls (13-7, 2-1 AMC) return after playing a doubleheader at Harris-Stowe State University last Saturday. The Owls split the doubleheader with the Hornets, as they took game one, 4-0, before dropping game two, 8-6.
In game one of the doubleheader,
Ryan Phillips threw a complete game shutout for the Owls as he only allowed five hits to Harris-Stowe and struck out seven. Phillips did not only dominate on the mound, he also helped himself out at the plate as he collected three RBIs in game one leading the Owls to the victory.
The Owls jumped out to a quick four run first inning of the second game and grew its lead to 5-0 before the Hornets slowly battled back and tying the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth inning. Harris-Stowe took the lead in the bottom of the seventh and the Owls had no answer in falling in game two.
On the season the Owls are batting .317 on the season, collecting 178 hits, with 44 extra base hits. WWU has scored 122 runs this season. The Owls have outscored opponents 25-7 in the first inning and 25-2 in the fourth inning this season.
Tanner Wetrich leads the team with a .429 batting average. Wetrich has collected 21 hits on the season and driven in nine runs for the Owls.
Jansen Smith follows hitting .366 with 10 RBIs and seven doubles on the season.
On the mound,
John Cavness leads the pitching staff with a 4-0 record and 33 and two thirds innings pitched. He has an ERA of 1.87, and has struck out 28 batters and in his five starts. Out of his five starts, Cavness has three complete games. Holding an ERA of 3.00 is
Ryan Phillips. Phillips is 4-1 on the season in his five starts, with one complete game and one shutout. In three starts this season,
Jacob Guilianelli has an ERA of 2.84.
As a pitching staff, the Owls have a team ERA of 5.16 and are holding opponents to a batting average of .273 on the season. William Woods has seven players with a 3.00 ERA or lower this season.
Missouri Baptist (14-6, 2-1 AMC) comes into the series winning three straight. The Spartans are coming off a doubleheader sweep of Morthland College. MBU took game one 16-1, before taking game two, 22-0. The Spartans come in ranked second in the nation in stolen bases per game as they average 3.8 per game. They have stolen 77 bases on the season.
On the season, Brian Poupore leads the Spartans in batting average as he has a batting average of .435 and has four doubles and 18 runs driven in. Teammate Tim Hergert follows with a batting average of .431 with seven doubles and 11 RBI on the season.
On the mound for Missouri Baptist, the Spartants hold a team ERA of 2.97 and are allowing opponents to hit .257 on the season. Leading the way is Donnie Lovelady who has a team ERA of 2.37 in 30 and a third innings pitched. Lovelady has appeared in six games on the season, while starting four. Following Lovelady is Keven Long, who holds a 2-0 record and an ERA of 2.42 on the season.
The Owls and Spartans met four times last season, with each team winning two games. The Owls took the regular season three game set as they won the first two games of the series before dropping the final game. The two also show each other in the AMC Baseball Tournament, which the Spartans defeated the Owls, 6-5. Last season, the Owls finished third in the AMC, while the Spartans finished fourth.
Fans make sure to stay updated on wwuowls.com Friday and Saturday night for a full recap and scores of the three game series.
