Columbia, Mo. – This evening the Columbia College baseball team was back on the field when they hosted the 20th ranked William Woods (Mo.) University Owls in an AMC matchup. The Cougars fell to the Owls by a final score of 8-5 to move to 16-5 on the season and 4-3 in conference play.
Columbia took the earlier 2-0 lead after the first inning including a homerun off the bat of Andrew Warner. The Owls quickly cut the lead in half in the second and would then tie the game at 2 in the fourth. The Cougars would take a 3-2 lead at the end of the fourth, but in the top of the fifth the Owls added two more runs taking a 4-3 lead. Columbia was able to tie the game at 4 after six innings of play. However, the Owls rattled off three runs in the seventh to hold a 7-4 lead. The Cougars would grab one more run in the eighth cutting the lead to two, but would not be able to overcome the Owls as they fell 8-5.
Dakota Stone (2-1) got the start as he allowed seven hits, two earned runs, and struck out three batters in 5.2 innings of work. Derek Sallee (1-2) came in to relieve Stone as he gave up just five hits, allowed four earned runs, and struck out four batters in 2.2 innings of play. J.W. McGraw (3-0) and Craig Smith (1-0) came in to relieve Sallee as they combined for zero hits allowed and one strike out while on the mound. Offensively, Andrew Warner went 1-3 with two runs scored and one RBI, Tanner Allen was 2-4 with two runs scored, and Ethan Howser went 2-4 with one run scored and one RBI.
The baseball team is back in action on Saturday, March 17th when they play host to the Lyon College (Ark.) Scots in an AMC doubleheader. The first game of the doubleheader is set to start at 1 p.m. with the second to follow.
