Belleville, Ill. – This afternoon the Columbia College baseball team was back in action when they took on the Lindenwood University-Belleville (Ill.) Lynx in the final game of the three game series. The Cougars, who swept the Lynx in the doubleheader yesterday, were unable to pick up the win this afternoon as they fell to 31-12 on the season and 17-9 in conference play.
Columbia College put together a 14 hit outing in the 10-9 loss. They were able to get on the board first in this one as they scored in the top of the second to take a 1-0 lead. The Lynx bounced back and rallied for one run in the bottom of the second, one run in the bottom of the third, and two runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-1 lead into the fifth. Both sides exchanged three runs in the fifth and one run in the seventh as Lindenwood-Belleville held an 8-5 advantage heading into the eighth. Columbia College continued to battle in the game and were able to rally for three runs in top of the eighth to tie the score at eight and then added a final run in the top of the ninth to take a 9-8 lead into the final half inning. Despite being up late, the Cougars were unable to close out the game as the Lynx picked up two runs in the bottom of the ninth to prevent the series sweep.
Cody Ebert (5-2) got the start in this one as he allowed four hits and five earned runs while striking out one in 4.0 innings of the mound. J.W. McGraw (5-0), Derek Sallee (5-3), and Craig Smith (3-3) came in to relieve Ebert as the three combined to allow six hits and five earned runs while striking out five in the final 4.1 innings of the game. Alex Del Rio led the way for the Cougars at the plate as he went 3-4 with four RBI's. To go along with Del Rio, Jordan Wright went 4-6 with an RBI, Blade McKee went 2-6 with an RBI, and Ethan Howser went 2-5 with an RBI to round out the top performers for Columbia.
The baseball team is back in action on Friday, April 27th when they travel to Parkville, Missouri, to take on the Park (Mo.) University Pirates in the final regular season AMC series of the year. The Cougars will play a doubleheader against the Pirates with the first game starting at 1 p.m. and the second game to follow.
