Baker Splits Baseball Home Series with Evangel, Qualifies for Heart Tournament

BALDWIN CITY, Kan. – The Baker University baseball team split its home four-game series with Evangel University over the weekend, as they took the first two games by scores of 6-5 and 15-2 and fell on Saturday, 3-2 and 7-3.

The Wildcats improved to 21-25 overall and 15-13 in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, while Evangel fell to 15-34 and 7-21 in the Heart.

For just the second time since 1999, Baker has qualified for the Heart of America Athletic Conference tournament and first since 2014.

The Wildcats will compete May 6-10 in Joplin, Missouri at the 2016 Heart Conference Tournament in search of its first Heart title since 1993 for the baseball program.

In game one, Seth Jones threw 4.1 innings and was relieved by Kekai Rivera-Albeso, who threw 2.2 innings of scoreless action and allowed just one hit, eventually receiving the win.

The Wildcats trailed 5-3 entering the bottom of the 7^th inning and scored three-straight runs to earn the walk off. Baker won on a Wes Summers single that scored Jamaal Rashad.

Cody Gregory led Baker in the first game, with a 3-for-3 day at the DH spot, while Charlie Coleman, Travis Johnson and Summers each had two hits.

In game two, Baker’s offense exploded for four runs in the first, second and third innings and three in the fifth.

Baker had 14 hits in the victory and 10 different players recorded a hit. Gabe Greenbaum and Max Taulbee had extra base hits for Baker, as Greenbaum hit a triple and Taulbee added a double.

Cort Brennan knocked in four RBI’s and Justin Bye received the win after throwing five innings.

In game three, Caleb Lee threw all seven innings and ended with a loss. He struck out three batters and allowed only one earned run.

Baker had seven hits offensively with three coming from Austin Bass.

In the series finale, Baker tagged the Evangel staff for four hits and Lake Johnson earned the loss.

NAIA Baseball Box Score 4/22/2016 4:00 PM

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R	H	E
Evangel (Mo.)	1	1	1	0	2	0	0		5	10	3
Baker (Kan.)	2	0	0	0	0	1	3		6	11	2

NAIA Baseball Box Score 4/22/2016 6:00 PM

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R	H	E
Evangel (Mo.)	0	0	0	0	2	0	0		2	4	8
Baker (Kan.)	4	4	4	0	3	0	X		15	14	3

NAIA Baseball Box Score 4/23/2016 1:00 PM

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R	H	E
Evangel (Mo.)	2	0	0	0	0	0	1		3	7	0
Baker (Kan.)	1	0	0	0	0	0	1		2	7	1

NAIA Baseball Box Score 4/23/2016 3:00 PM

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R	H	E
Evangel (Mo.)	2	5	0	0	0	0	0		7	11	2
Baker (Kan.)	0	0	0	0	0	3	0		3	4	1