Columbia, Mo. – This evening, the Columbia College men's baseball team was back in action as they played against the 16^th ranked Central Methodist University Eagles. The Cougars fell to the Eagles 7-6 in ten innings of play. The Cougars are now 20-18 on the season.

The Cougars got off to a great start as they scored a run in the first and second inning to take the lead 2-0. Dalton Bealmer extended the lead in the third as he hit a bomb for a solo homerun. Columbia kept their momentum going as they added two more runs in the same inning to make it a 5-0 game. The Eagles were able to get on the board in the fourth inning as they hit a solo homerun. The Cougars responded by adding another run to keep their lead 6-1. Central Methodist hit their second solo homerun in the seventh followed by another run scored to cut Columbia's lead 6-3. The Eagles found their rhythm in the ninth inning as they scored three runners to tie the game at six to take the Cougars to extra innings. Central Methodist kept pushing as they added another run for their first lead of the game in the tenth. Columbia fought hard to get back in the game, but fell short as Central Methodist got the last three outs to hand the Cougars the loss.

Jordan Copeland (1-0) got the start on the mound as he struck out four batters and allowed just one earned run in 3.2 innings of play. Josiah Imhoff (3-1), Derek Sallee (0-2), Conner Darnell (3-2), and Ethan Howser came in to relieve Copeland as they struck out a combined six batters in 6.1 innings. Offensively, the Cougars were led by Nolan Rattai who had three hits while scoring two runs and had one RBI, Dalton Bealmer who had two hits while scoring a run and had one RBI, and Blade McKee who had two hits while scoring two runs to round up the top performers for the Cougars.

The baseball team is back in action Friday, April 19^th as they host the Williams Baptist University Eagles for an AMC matchup. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.