Shreveport, La. – The Columbia College baseball team was back in action today as they continued play in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round bracket. In day two of the opening round, the fourth seed Cougars eliminated the second seed Louisiana State University Shreveport Pilots and the top seed Oklahoma City Stars. Columbia went into the elimination bracket ready to play as they tallied up a total of 28 hits and five homeruns on the day to defeat the Pilots 15-12 and the Stars 5-4. Columbia is now 31-22 on the season.
 
LSU started the first inning scoring three runs. The Cougars responded right away with a three run homerun by Kenny Piper to tie the game at three. The Pilots then hit a two run homerun followed by three more runs scored in the second to take the lead back. Nolan Rattai started the second inning with a hit to center to score Joshua Miller. Columbia then tied the game again after Dalton Bealmer hit a grand slam on the first pitch. The Cougars and the Pilots were evenly matched for the next few innings as neither team was able to score any more runs. It wasn't until the sixth inning that Bealmer hit a homerun to give the Cougars their first lead of the game. Bradley Prebay followed that with a hit to right field and scored Justin Randle to extend Columbia's lead 10-8. LSU came back in the eighth as they hit a two run homerun to tie the game again at 10. Randle came up to the plate and hit a bomb to right field to give the Cougars the two run lead with his two run homerun. Rattai followed that with a hit to third to score Blade McKee. Columbia went on to add two more runs in the inning to give themselves a five run lead heading into the ninth. The Pilots fought hard in the final inning, but the Cougar defense stopped them at just two runs to win the game 15-12.

Chris Wall (7-4) got the start on the mound as he struck out eight batters in 4.2 innings of work. Wall was relieved by Jacob Ford (2-6), Jordan Copeland (3-0), and Conner Darnell (3-3) who struck out a combined three batters in the final 4.1 innings of the game. Dalton Bealmer led the way for the Cougars as he had four hits while scoring three runs and had four RBI. Additionally, Kenny Piper had two hits while scoring two runs and had four RBI, Nolan Rattai had three hits while scoring two runs and had two RBI, and Justin Randle had two hits while scoring two runs and had two RBI to round up the top performers for the Cougars.
 
In the game against the Stars, the first few innings were scoreless. Oklahoma City then found their rhythm in the bottom of the fourth as they scored four runs. The Cougars responded in the fifth as Blade McKee hit towards the hole at second base and Randle scored. Kenny Piper then started the ninth inning strong as he hit his second homerun of the day to cut the Stars lead 4-2. Columbia kept their spirits up as Bealmer scored on the Stars error. Prebay and Miller then hit a sacrifice fly each to score Randle and Hayden Ludwig, respectively. The Cougars had gotten their first lead of the game, 5-4. Darnell was able to strike out the first two batters of the ninth inning. Two Stars got on base and Coach Munns made a trip to the mound to give Darnell the pep talk he needed to strike out the final batter to keep the Cougars season alive.
 
Grant Starke (3-1) was the starting pitcher as he struck out five batters in 6.0 innings. Starke was relieved by Tanner Beatty (1-0) and Conner Darnell (4-3) who struck out a combined three batters and did not allow any runs in the final three innings of the game. Offensively, the Cougars were led by Kenny Piper who had two hits while scoring a run and had one RBI, Bradley Prebay who had a hit and one RBI, and Blade McKee who had two RBI.

The Cougars will return to the field tomorrow to continue National Tournament Opening Round play as they take on the York (Neb.) College Panthers. First pitch is set for 12 p.m.

For all Baseball National Championship Opening Round info click here.