COLUMBIA, Mo. – The William Woods University baseball team defeated Columbia College, 8-5, in American Midwest Conference action on Thursday night in Columbia, Missouri.
 
Taran Oulton pitched up the win for the Owls as he pitched eight and a third innings on the game and came away with seven strikeouts. Patrick Dillion and Glen DesBouillons drove in two runs each for the Owls. The win for the Owls snaps the Cougars eight game winning streak.
 
WWU returns to action on Saturday, March 17 when they face Hannibal-LaGrange University in American Midwest Conference action. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.
 
Game Flow
The Cougars came out swinging in the bottom of the first when Andrew Warner hit a solo homerun to center field putting the Cougars ahead, 1-0. The Cougars followed the homerun with a single and then a double to score again and extending the lead to 2-0.
 
The Owls answered back in the top of the second when Nolan Aherin hit a double to put himself in scoring position. After a passed ball, Aherin advanced to third and Patrick Dillon grounded out up the middle to score Aherin putting the Owls down one, 2-1.
 
The Owls scored again in the top of the fourth tying up the game. Aherin reached on a walk and was later advanced to second by Dillon on a sacrifice bunt. On a ground out, Aherin advanced to third base and came into score on a Cougars error, tying the game at 2-2.
 
The Cougars added another run in the bottom of the fourth to take back the lead, 3-2. In the inning, the Cougars had a runner on third base with no outs, and Alex Del Rio hit a sacrifice fly putting the Cougars back on top.
 
 The Owls offense came to life in the top of the fifth scoring two runs after Brian Granton and Frankie Valle hit back to back singles. Tyler Cunningham put down a successful bunt to advance the runners to second and third. Aherin smacked a single to score Granton and tying the game at 3-3. Patrick Dillon reached on a fielder's choice and on the play Valle came into score putting the Owls ahead, 4-3.
 
The Cougars fought back and were able to push another run across the plate to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth inning. With a runner on second, the Cougars laid down a bunt and the Owls recorded an error scoring one, tying the game at 4-4. The Cougars had two more runners on but could not get another run across.
 
The top of the seventh the Owls added three runs to the scoreboard. With two outs, a single by Aherin, a walk by Dillon put two runners on. Glen DesBouillons came up and hit an RBI single putting the Owls ahead 5-4. Zach Smith reached on a walk to load the bases and a wild pitch would allow Dillon to score growing the Owls lead to 6-4. Josh Nicol singled and DesBouillons scored extending the Owls lead to 7-4.
 
The Cougars kept chipping away at the Owls lead as they scored another run in the bottom of the eighth after capitalizing on Owls errors. After the Owls committed two errors in the inning the Cougars could only score one and WWU went to the ninth with a 7-5 lead.
 
The top of the ninth inning brought about another insurance run for the Owls when Glen DesBouillons hit a solo homerun. That would be the only hit for the Owls in the inning and the Owls lead 8-5 heading to the bottom of the ninth.
 
Oulton, came back out to the mound to start the ninth and got Josh Miller to strike out. Jeremy Hidalgo came for him after the strikeout and got Blade McKee to ground and got Justin Randle to ground out to second ending the game. WWU came away with an 8-5 victory over Columbia.
 
By the Numbers
7 – Taran Oulton recorded seven strikeouts
8 – WWU scored eight runs in the victory
3 – Brian Granton and Nolan Aherin had three hits apiece, leading the Owls
6 – WWU had six players collect hits in the game
4 – The Owls drew four walks in the contest
1 – Glen DesBouillons hit one home run in the game
2 – WWU stole two bases in the game
 
Starting Pitcher Lines
WWU – Taran Oulton, 8.1 IP, 7H, 5R (2ER), 2BBs, 7Ks
CC – Dakota Stone, 5.2 IP, 7H, 4R (2ER), 2BBs, 3Ks