Joplin, Mo. – This afternoon the Columbia College baseball team was back in action when they took on the 25^th ranked MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) University Pioneers and the William Penn (Iowa) University Statesmen in the 2017 Joplin Tourney. The Cougars split the double header in Joplin, Missouri, as they were defeated by MidAmerica Nazarene by a score of 2-1 and then defeated William Penn by a score of 8-7 on a walk-off base hit in the bottom of the seventh by Blade McKee.

The Cougars had a tough time getting their offense going in the first game as they were held to just three hits in the game. The Pioneers, who also had trouble putting the ball in play with just four hits, were able to pick up two runs in the bottom of the second to break out to an early 2-0 lead in the game. Despite being down, the Cougars battled hard to get back into the contest and scored a run in the top of the sixth inning to cut the Pioneers lead in half. Columbia College did their best to find the equalizing run in the final inning but ultimately MidAmerica Nazarene was able to close out the Cougars in the seventh inning and improved to 2-3 on the season.  Zach Maskill was the starting pitcher for Columbia College allowing two unearned runs while striking out two in six innings of work.

In their second game of the day, the Cougars got off to a quick start as they were able to score two runs in the bottom of the second inning to take an early lead in the game. The Statesmen bounced back in the top half of the third and scored two runs to tie the game but were unable to shutdown Columbia in the bottom half of the inning as the Cougars scored three runs and took a 5-2 lead into the fourth. William Penn added another run in the top of the fourth inning but once again Columbia College responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth and held a four run lead heading into the final frame. The Statesmen were determined to tie the contest and were able to do so in the top of the seventh as they went off for four runs in the inning to tie the game at seven. However, the resilient Cougars were up to the test and loaded the bases for Blade McKee who stepped up to the plate and hit a ball straight up the middle to score Ward Mershon from third giving the Cougars their fourth win of the season. Mark Haire was the starter for Columbia College as he went four innings allowing five hits and three earned runs in the contest. In addition to Haire, Kenny Piper went 2-2 with two RBI's and Bradley Prebay went 3-4 with two RBI's to round out the top performers for Columbia.

The 4-6 Cougars are back in action tomorrow, February 18^th when they take on Graceland (Iowa) University in the final game of the 2017 Joplin Tourney. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m. at Carl Junction High School.