The Mount Vernon Nazarene Cougars baseball team won big in its first game of Day 3 in the Crossroads League baseball tournament, but was knocked out of competition in the second game.
MVNU (37-17) defeated Marian University (27-27) 16-8 in early play before falling to Huntington University (27-22), 6-4, on Tuesday, May 10.
In the opener, the Cougar offense exploded for 16 runs on 18 hits against the sixth-seeded Marian Knights. MVNU kept its foot on the gas all game, scoring runs in six of the nine innings. Leading 7-4 in the sixth, Casey Kalman unloaded a three-run home run, putting MVNU up 10-4. Marian answered Kalman’s homer with two two-run blasts in the bottom of the inning, cutting the MVNU lead to 10-8. After tacking on a run in the eighth to go up 11-8, MVNU threw the knockout punch in the ninth. The Cougars scored five runs to put the game away. Andrew Miller hit a three-run homer in the inning.
Kaleb Bauman pitched six innings and was credited with the win for MVNU. Maxwell Donawa pitched three shutout innings of relief for the Cougars.
Moving on to the fateful second game, MVNU fell behind early. Fourth-seeded Huntington hit a two-run homer and a solo shot in the top of the first to take a 3-0 lead. MVNU battled back in the bottom of the inning. Devin Pearl hit an RBI-single that scored Toby Walker, and Cameron Miller drew a bases loaded walk, making the score 3-2. Jake Glover gave MVNU its first lead of the game with a two-run home run to right field in the bottom of the second. The lead ended up being the last lead for the Cougars. as a two-run fourth-inning put Huntington up for good. The Foresters went on to win by a 6-4 final score, knocking the Cougars out of the Crossroads League Tournament.
