By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Joseph Mustangs continued their winning ways at Phil Welch Stadium, pushing their home record to 13-3 in a 5-4 win over the Chillicothe Mudcats on Monday night.
The Mustangs got off to an early 1-0 lead in the first after an Easton Bruce single would move Lafayette alumni Cole Slibowski to third base. A wild pitch in the next at bat would bring Slibowski home for the lead. St. Joseph would go on to score two more runs in the third, a Ryan Callahan double scoring Bruce from first and then later in the inning as Trevor McCollum would go to steal second, a throwing error from the catcher would score Callahan, giving the Mustangs a 3-0 lead through three innings.
After the Mudcats answered with a run in the top of the fifth inning, the Mustangs would get one run back in the bottom of the sixth as Slibowski would single scoring Mason Holton pushing the lead to 4-1 at the end of the sixth.
Chillicothe would claw even closer in the top of the seventh scoring two runs and narrowing the St. Joseph lead to 4-3, but the Mustangs would answer again in the bottom half of the inning with the only insurance run they would need, a McColllum single scoring Lafayette alumni Brayden Luikart and pushing the lead back to 5-3 at the end of the frame.
The Mudcats would score one more run in the top of the ninth when Nathan Maclaren scored on a wild pitch and the tying run in the form of Kodai Yaoita would advance to third. Jack Wells would issue a walk to Elian Guzman and Guzman would go on to steal second before Wells would get Zack Thompson to fly out to left field to end the game.
Bruce led all Mustangs hitters with two hits, while multiple others had one hit a piece on the night. The Mustangs while getting eight hits did struggle against Chillicothe starter Karter Muck striking out 11 times through his five innings on the mound.
St. Joseph's starter also was dealing on the mound through five innings as Aron Harrington struck out eight batters and gave up just one unearned run on the night. Savannah alumni Braden Berry pitched three innings of relief before Wells came on to close out the game for his third save of the season.
The Mustangs are now 20-10 on the season, 18-10 in MINK League play, and sit just one game behind the Clarinda A's after Clarinda fell 11-1 to Sedalia on Monday. St. Joseph will have two shots at the A's this week to wrap up a four game home stand.
But before they meet Clarinda, the Mustangs will face Sedalia at home on the Fourth of July. A third fireworks spectacular will follow the game to celebrate Independence Day. First pitch is at 7pm.