Fulton, Mo. – This afternoon the Columbia College baseball team was back in action when they took on William Woods (Mo.) University in the final two games of a three game series. The Cougars, who defeated the Owls by a final score of 10-3 in Friday night's contest, split the doubleheader with William Woods as they were defeated in the first game by a final score of 9-8 and then bounced back to take the second contest 14-11. With the split, Columbia improves to 28-14 on the season and 18-6 in AMC play.

In the first game of the doubleheader, the Owls came out of the gate and rallied for six runs in the first two innings to jump out to an early 6-0 lead. The Cougars were able to answer with a run of their own in the top of the third but a two run rally from the Owls in the bottom half of the frame gave them an 8-1 lead through three innings of play. Columbia was able to add one more run in top of the fourth and then rallied for six runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game at eight. However, the Owls were able to add one more final run in the bottom of the fifth and closed out Columbia down the stretch to clinch the first game of the doubleheader.

Jeremy Rettig (7-2) was the starting pitcher in the first game for the Cougars as he struck out three batters while allowing eight hits and six earned runs in 4.0 innings of work. Mark Haire (1-1) and Craig Smith (2-3) were in relief for Rettig as the two combined to allow just one hit and one earned run in the final two innings of the game. Offensively, Columbia was led by Jordan Wright who went 2-4 with two runs scored and Joshua Miller who went 2-4 with an RBI.

In their second game against William Woods, neither side was able to get anything going early. The Owls were finally able to break into the scoring column in the bottom of the third inning but the Cougars responded quickly and rallied behind a grand slam from Andrew Warner to score six runs and take a 6-3 lead in the game. Despite giving up a big inning in the fourth, Williams Woods did not let the Cougar lead last very long. They rallied for five runs in the bottom half of the fourth and took an 8-6 lead into the fifth. Columbia College took their first lead of the ballgame in the top of the sixth inning when they scored three runs and then added two more runs in the top of the seventh to take a 11-8 lead into the bottom half of the frame. The Owls responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the seventh but the Cougars rallied for three runs in the top of the ninth to capture their 18^th conference win of the season.

Cody Ebert (8-0) was the starting pitcher in this one as he struck out three batters while allowing seven hits and seven earned runs in three innings on the mound. Craig Smith (3-3) picked up the win in this one as he allowed just one hit and no earned runs in one inning of work. In addition, Andrew Warner went 4-4 with six RBI's and Justin Randle went 2-3 with four RBI's to lead Columbia at the plate.

The Cougars are back in action on Tuesday, April 18^th when they host the seventh ranked Tabor (Kan.) College Bluejays in a nonconference matchup. The game against the Bluejays is set to start at 6 p.m. at Atkins Park.