By MATT PIKE
For the first time since 2017, the Missouri Western State University baseball team is advancing to the MIAA tournament semifinals, beating No. 2 seed Rogers State 9-5 in the quarterfinals in Edmond, Oklahoma.
MoWest scored two runs in the top of the first inning on Seth Winkler's two RBI single, scoring Jordan Austin scored and Micah Kobuszewski, and never looked back from there. The Hillcats scored one run in the bottom of the third on Blake Conrad's solo home run, but the Griffons answered in the fourth on a David De Hoyos RBI double that brought home Luke Shannahan.
Holding a 3-1 lead going into the bottom half of the inning in the fourth, MoWest surrendered another solo home run to Andrew Ramirez to cut the lead to one, but again the Griffons extended their lead to stay ahead in the fifth inning on an RBI single from Miguel Cantu, driving Kobuszewski across home plate to take a 4-2 lead.
MoWest entered the sixth inning leading 4-3 after Conrad scored in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Luis Fuentes, but in the top half of the sixth, the Griffons hit three home runs, with solo shots from De Hoyos and Luke Parmentier, and a two-run blast from Kobuszewski, scoring Ben Waliczek to pull ahead 8-3 in the middle of the sixth. Rogers State did get one run back in the bottom half of the inning, cutting the lead in half as Ramirez scored on a sacrifice fly by Jake Mitchell.
MoWest added an insurance run in the eighth inning on an RBI single from Austin, bringing in Carson Shear. The Hillcats did add the final run in the bottom half of the eighth as Zak Nelson scored on a groundout by Andres Contreras, but on the mound, Cole Evans put Rogers State down in order in the ninth to close out the game, earning his seventh win of the season, improving to 7-2.
Evans relieved starter Sebastian Gutierrez in the fourth inning and finished the game, going the last 5.2 innings, striking out three and retiring each of his last six batters faced. Evans gave up three runs on three hits and walked two batters on way to the win. Gutierrez struck out a season-high tying five batters with no walks, giving up two runs on four hits in 3.1 innings.
De Hoyos went 2-for-5 with a run scored and two RBI, including a home run and a double. Austin was 3-for-5 with one RBI, while Kobuszewski was also 3-for-5 with a home run, two RBI's.
MoWest will play the winner of No. 6 seed Emporia State and No. 3 seed Missouri Southern in MIAA tournament semifinals on Friday at 1 p.m. The game was moved to 1pm due to forecasted rain in Edmond. It will follow the Northwest Missouri State and Pittsburg State semifinal, now scheduled for 10am.
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