WINONA LAKE, Ind. – The Mount Vernon Nazarene University baseball team (31-14, 24-8) completed a four-game sweep over the Grace College Lancers (16-29, 10-22 ) to maintain first place in the Crossroads League.
The Cougars beat Grace 11-10 in Game 1 and 7-3 in Game 2.
Coming into this four-game stand, MVNU was tied with Taylor University at the top of the conference standings. The Crossroads League regular season champion earns an automatic bid to the NAIA National Tournament, and the Cougars knew that they could use this series to create some distance between themselves and their rivals from Upland, Indiana to get that much closer to an automatic postseason berth.
The MVNU bats were alive in the first game as the Cougars scored 11 runs on 17 hits. MVNU started the scoring in the top of the second as Andrew Miller crushed a grand slam to get his team out to a comfortable 4-0 lead. The Lancers did not roll over and die, though, as they would score six across the home halves of the second and third innings to put the pressure on the visitors.
A pair of RBI singles by Clay Cottle and Zackary Hoop in the top of the third inning meant things were all tied up at six apiece going into the fourth. In the fourth, Devin Pearl hit his sixth homer of the season, sending a solo shot over the right field fence to put the Cougars back on top 7-6.
Casey Kalman’s sacrifice fly in the sixth scored Miller to make it 8-6 before Kalman and the Cougars tacked on three more runs in the eighth. The sophomore from Millersburg blasted a three-run homer to give his team a nice cushion going into the latter innings. Grace came back with two runs in each of the final two innings, but it was not enough, and the Cougars eked out a win in the game, 11-10.
Austin Brown, who came on in relief and pitched 5 2/3 innings, got the win. Brown gave up two earned runs on three hits and three walks. Brown struck six batters out. Cruz McFadden, the current saves leader in the NAIA, came on to close out the game. The sophomore pitched one inning and gave up two earned runs on four hits. He struck out one.
In Game 2, the Cougars got on the board early again, scoring four in the top of the first. After Toby Walker singled to start the game, Miller continued to swing a hot bat as he grooved a two-run home run over the left field fence. Kalman then scored on an error for a third run, and Pearl scored on a Hogan Heck single to make it 4-0.
Walker added an insurance run in the second as he scored on a wild pitch. Andrew Miller’s third home run of the day, a solo shot, made it 6-0. Finally, Brady Wallace scored when Cameron Miller singled in the sixth to make it 7-2. The Lancers would score one more in the bottom of the sixth, and that is where things stood when the final out was made. The 7-3 win meant the Cougars would stay atop the league standings after Taylor split its four-game series with Indiana Wesleyan University.
Jake Glover went the distance on the mound for MVNU as the right-hander gave up only three runs – two earned – on eight hits and a single walk in his 7 innings of work. Glover struck out six batters.
